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Tis a petty kind of fame At best, that comes of making violins And saves no masses, either. Thou wilt go To purgatory none the less.

George Eliot

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George Eliot
Age: 61 †
Born: 1819
Born: November 22
Died: 1880
Died: December 22
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
Writer
Mary Anne Evans
Mary Ann Evans
Marian Evans
Mary Anne Evans Cross
Mary Anne Cross
Mass
Wilt
Either
Saves
Less
Violin
Making
Petty
Comes
Masses
Best
Thou
Kind
None
Violins
Fame
Purgatory

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May I reach That purest heaven - be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty. Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in the diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world.
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... when one's outward lot is perfect, the sense of inward imperfection is the more pressing.
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Those bitter sorrows of childhood!-- when sorrow is all new and strange, when hope has not yet got wings to fly beyond the days and weeks, and the space from summer to summer seems measureless.
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It is strange how deeply colours seem to penetrate one, like scent.
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The tendency toward good in human nature has a force which no creed can utterly counteract, and which insures the ultimate triumph of that tendency over all dogmatic perversions.
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A woman mixed of such fine elements That were all virtue and religion dead She'd make them newly, being what she was.
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If you had a table spread for a feast, and was making merry with your friends, you would think it was kind to let me come and sit down and rejoice with you, because you'd think I should to share those good things but I should better to share in your trouble and your labour.
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A child, more than all other gifts That earth can offer to declining man, Brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts. —WORDSWORTH.
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When we are dead : it is the living only who cannot be forgiven the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind .
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I at least have so much to do in unraveling certain human lots, and seeing how they were woven and interwoven, that all the light I can command must be concentrated on this particular web, and not dispersed over that tempting range of relevancies called the universe.
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I'll tell you what's the greatest power under heaven, and that is public opinion-the ruling belief in society about what is right and what is wrong, what is honourable and what is shameful. That's the steam that is to work the engines.
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Wear a smile and have friends wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
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... it is because sympathy is but a living again through our own past in a new form, that confession often prompts a response of confession.
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Art is the nearest thing to life it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow men beyond the bounds of our personal lot.
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The bow always strung ... will not do.
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Death was not to be a leap: it was to be a long descent under thickening shadows.
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Selfish— a judgment readily passed by those who have never tested their own power of sacrifice.
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A man deep-wounded may feel too much pain To feel much anger.
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The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.
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I'm not one of those that can see the cat in the dairy and wonder what she's there for.
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