Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.
- George Eliot
Failure, Never, Than, Striving
In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.
- George Eliot
Some, Petrified, His, Spite
If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.
- George Eliot
Die, Other, Which, Beat
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
- George Eliot
Life, Past, Nothing, Golden
Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.
- George Eliot
Smile, Friends, Wear, Wrinkles
The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.
- George Eliot
Seventy, Fifty, Always, Asked
Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.
- George Eliot
Pet, Ask, Pass, Agreeable
Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.
- George Eliot
Margin, Very, Which, Blot
Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.
- George Eliot
Jealousy, Never, Would, Fold
People who can't be witty exert themselves to be devout and affectionate.
- George Eliot
Witty, Themselves, Exert, Devout
It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.
- George Eliot
Mind, View, Which, Narrow
An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.
- George Eliot
Election, Interest, Lives, Poultry
The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.
- George Eliot
Beginning, Persons, Definite, Outline
Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their neighbour's buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no murder.
- George Eliot
Think, Pinch, Neighbour, Mortals
There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.
- George Eliot
Private, Which, Wider, Public Life
The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.
- George Eliot
Growth, Principle, Lies, Strongest
For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.
- George Eliot
Love, Cares, Which, Joys
He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
- George Eliot
Funny, Thought, Like, Risen
It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.
- George Eliot
Inspirational, Give, Alive, Wishing
There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.
- George Eliot
Sad, Sorrow, Which, Recovered
Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.
- George Eliot
Heat, Like, Likely, Generate
A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.
- George Eliot
Other, Makes, Which, Dissimilar
The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.
- George Eliot
World, Handsome, Eggs, Analogy
Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.
- George Eliot
Rest, Like, Which, Harold
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.
- George Eliot
Simple, Will, More, Forsake
The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.
- George Eliot
Vision, Lies, Wider, Tolerance
Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.
- George Eliot
Soul, Consists, Unbelief, Accepting
It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.
- George Eliot
Woman, Ideal, His, Captivated
I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.
- George Eliot
Production, Social, Literary, Offence
There is a sort of jealousy which needs very little fire; it is hardly a passion, but a blight bred in the cloudy, damp despondency of uneasy egoism.
- George Eliot
Needs, Very, Which, Hardly
Death is the king of this world: 'Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.
- George Eliot
Death, Pain, Cries, Tis
In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness.
- George Eliot
Reason, Private, Quarrels, Triumphant
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
- George Eliot
Small Things, Small, Brought, Impulse
Worldly faces never look so worldly as at a funeral. They have the same effect of grating incongruity as the sound of a coarse voice breaking the solemn silence of night.
- George Eliot
Voice, Sound, Incongruity, Solemn
Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.
- George Eliot
Love, Parting, Agony, Depths
Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.
- George Eliot
See, Most, Which, Conscientious
There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.
- George Eliot
Country, Deal, Which, Storms
In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.
- George Eliot
Vain, Folly, Half, Applause
It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
- George Eliot
Rain, Gardening, Never, Roses
A woman's heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed recipe.
- George Eliot
Feet, Small, Larger, Cakes
Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
- George Eliot
Humor, Strain, Great Strain, Jokes
A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
- George Eliot
Taste, Strain, Great Strain, Jokes
We hand folks over to God's mercy, and show none ourselves.
- George Eliot
Over, Show, Folks, Mercy
But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.
- George Eliot
Only, Call, Eagerness, Despair
We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.
- George Eliot
Doing, Through, Still, Sit
It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us.
- George Eliot
Strong, Always, Been, Circumstance
Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.
- George Eliot
May, Cruelty, Would, Unkindness
No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.
- George Eliot
Indifference, Expression, Eloquent
What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.
- George Eliot
Want, Motive, Makes, Dreary
Rome - the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.
- George Eliot
Travel, Rome, Images, Ancestral
No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.
- George Eliot
Love, Desire, Continue, Hopelessly
I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
- George Eliot
Purpose, Behind, Against, Ought
Excessive literary production is a social offense.
- George Eliot
Production, Social, Offense, Excessive
You may try but you can never imagine what it is to have a man's form of genius in you, and to suffer the slavery of being a girl.
- George Eliot
May, Imagine, Being, Being A Girl
Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.
- George Eliot
Play, Happen, Which, Order
I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.
- George Eliot
Women, Made, Almighty, Women Are
When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.
- George Eliot
Deal, Limitation, Exclusion, Great Deal
Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.
- George Eliot
Other, Vice, Itself, Motive
All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.
- George Eliot
Know, Depend, Interpretation, Key
Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.
- George Eliot
Love, Family, Symbol, Between
But that intimacy of mutual embarrassment, in which each feels that the other is feeling something, having once existed, its effect is not to be done away with.
- George Eliot
Other, Feels, Which, Embarrassment
What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined - to strengthen each other - to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.
- George Eliot
Silent, Other, Joined, Strengthen
Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.
- George Eliot
More, Agreement, Which, Delightful
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot
Nature, Soul, Very, Autumn
We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.
- George Eliot
Pet, Accorded, Our, Affection
I like trying to get pregnant. I'm not so sure about childbirth.
- George Eliot
Trying, Like, Sure, Pregnant
The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.
- George Eliot
Rather, Which, Robust, Sincerity
But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy.
- George Eliot
Current, Paradoxical, Means, Human Experience
Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?
- George Eliot
Sometimes, Rage, Get, Quarrel
Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face.
- George Eliot
Mother, Mother's Day, Loving, Waking
Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down.
- George Eliot
Ignorance, Hour, Builds, Slowly
No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.
- George Eliot
Great, Ask, Certainty, Deed
Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.
- George Eliot
Love, Soul, Loving, Human Soul
Breed is stronger than pasture.
- George Eliot
Stronger, Than, Pasture, Breed
Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.
- George Eliot
Personal, Other, Entertain, Ministers
The intense happiness of our union is derived in a high degree from the perfect freedom with which we each follow and declare our own impressions.
- George Eliot
Perfect, Which, Declare, Intense
There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.
- George Eliot
Some, Over, Which, Breeds
Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
- George Eliot
Communication, Fact, Having, Abstain
It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.
- George Eliot
Love, Think, New, Trace
The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
- George Eliot
World, Important, Wait, Important Work
Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.
- George Eliot
Love, Ease, Which, Return
Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.
- George Eliot
Truth, Easy, Difficult, Falsehood
The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.
- George Eliot
Memory, May, Principle, Resolved
Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.
- George Eliot
Genius, More, Than, Receiving
Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love.
- George Eliot
Love, Anger, More, Bear
To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.
- George Eliot
Feeling, Against, Occasion, Particular
I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out.
- George Eliot
Like, Still, Reasons, Bachelors
You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.
- George Eliot
Happen, Always, Persecution, Martyrdom
Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.
- George Eliot
Mistake, Very, Contest, Gives
Might, could, would - they are contemptible auxiliaries.
- George Eliot
Might, Could, Would, Contemptible
All the learnin' my father paid for was a bit o' birch at one end and an alphabet at the other.
- George Eliot
Other, Dad, Birch, Paid
I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.
- George Eliot
Desire, Will, Break, Ties
Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?
- George Eliot
Other, Side, Compare, Lying
Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.
- George Eliot
Away, Keep, Apt, Hobbies
Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.
- George Eliot
Death, Dead, Never, Forgotten
Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.
- George Eliot
Good, Brainy, Nothing, Seems
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!
- George Eliot
Know, Poor, Must, Luxury
The best augury of a man's success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.
- George Eliot
Profession, Finest, His, Thinks
Marriage must be a relation either of sympathy or of conquest.
- George Eliot
Marriage, Must, Either, Conquest
Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
- George Eliot
Positive, Wealth, Encourages, Generally
An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down.
- George Eliot
Stars, May, Before, Shakes
Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.
- George Eliot
Travel, Been, Still, Afar
Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.
- George Eliot
Nothing, More, Idea, More Or Less
Adventure is not outside man; it is within.
- George Eliot
Adventure, Man, Within, Outside
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.
- George Eliot
Man, May, Persecution, Opposition
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
- George Eliot
Same, Longer, Read, Lapse
What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?
- George Eliot
Life, Difficult, Other, Less
The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.
- George Eliot
Reward, Veterans Day, Duty
Consequences are unpitying.
- George Eliot
Consequences
Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.
- George Eliot
Woman, Same, Set, Supposed
What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
- George Eliot
Loneliness, More, Than, Distrust
That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he's wise.
- George Eliot
Wife, Sure, Mostly, Fool
The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.
- George Eliot
Failure, Purpose, See, Hugging
Our words have wings, but fly not where we would.
- George Eliot
Fly, Words, Would, Wings
And when a woman's will is as strong as the man's who wants to govern her, half her strength must be concealment.
- George Eliot
Strong, Woman, Half, Concealment
Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.
- George Eliot
Truth, Through, Rough, Bite
The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.
- George Eliot
Life, Beginning, New, New Life
The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.
- George Eliot
Words, Made, Mostly, Finest
Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.
- George Eliot
Wisdom, Determine, Our, Deeds
The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
- George Eliot
History, Like, Happiest, Nations
When death comes it is never our tenderness that we repent from, but our severity.
- George Eliot
Never, Severity, Repent, Tenderness
When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.
- George Eliot
Death, Never, Severity, Tenderness
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
- George Eliot
Inspirational, Never, Been, Late
There are many victories worse than a defeat.
- George Eliot
Failure, Victories, Than, Defeat
There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.
- George Eliot
Failure, True, Only, Be True
Whether happiness may come or not, one should try and prepare one's self to do without it.
- George Eliot
Happiness, Prepare, May, Self
In every parting there is an image of death.
- George Eliot
Death, Parting, Every, Image
I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.
- George Eliot
Love, I Am, Like, Loved
We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.
- George Eliot
Find, Been, Might, Duties
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