It was one of those dangerous moments when speech is at once sincere and deceptive - when feeling, rising high above its average depth, leaves flood-marks which are never reached again. George Eliot More Quotes by George Eliot More Quotes From George Eliot Perhaps the wind Wails so in winter for the summers dead, And all sad sounds are nature's funeral cries For what has been and is not. George Eliot summer winter wind A suppressed resolve will betray itself in the eyes. George Eliot betray resolve eye When you see fair hair Be pitiful. George Eliot pitiful fairs hair The Jews are among the aristocracy of every land; if a literature is called rich in the possession of a few classic tragedies, what shall we say to a national tragedy lasting for fifteen hundred years, in which the poets and the actors were also the heroes. George Eliot land hero years 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 violin kind fame Every man who is not a monster, a mathematician, or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other. George Eliot mad monsters men Fate has carried me 'Mid the thick arrows: I will keep my stand Not shrink and let the shaft pass by my breast To pierce another. George Eliot breasts arrows fate The stars are golden fruit upon a tree all out of reach. George Eliot golden stars tree Who can prove Wit to be witty when with deeper ground Dulness intuitive declares wit dull? George Eliot deeper witty dull Where you have friends you should not go to inns. George Eliot inns should Grant folly's prayers that hinder folly's wish, And serve the ends of wisdom. George Eliot ends prayer wish Speech is but broken light upon the depth Of the unspoken. George Eliot light broken darkness What if my words Were meant for deeds. George Eliot what-if deeds ifs Our growing thought Makes growing revelation. George Eliot revelations growing Fancy what a game of chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; if you were not only uncertain about your adversary's men, but a little uncertain also about your own. You would be especially likely to be beaten, if you depended arrogantly on your mathematical imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces with contempt. Yet this imaginary chess is easy compared with a game a man has to play against his fellow-men with other fellow-men for instruments. George Eliot passion games men I can't bear fishing. I think people look like fools sitting watching a line hour after hour-or else throwing and throwing, and catching nothing. George Eliot sea lakes thinking What is your religion? I mean-not what you know about religion but the belief that helps you most? George Eliot philosophy mean art I could not without vile hypocrisy and a miserable truckling to the smile of the world ... profess to join in worship which I wholly disapprove. George Eliot atheism hypocrisy world Given, a man with moderate intellect, a moral standard not higher than the average, some rhetorical affluence and a great glibness of speech, what is the career in which, without the aid of birth or money, he may most easily attain power and reputation in English society? Where is that Goshen of mediocrity in which a smattering of science and learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism as God-given piety? George Eliot careers average men There is no feeling, perhaps, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music,--that does not make a man sing or play the better. George Eliot music grief men
