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 More Quotes by George Eliot More Quotes From George Eliot When we are suddenly released from an acute absorbing bodily pain, our heart and senses leap out in new freedom; we think even the noise of streets harmonious, and are ready to hug the tradesman who is wrapping up our change. George Eliot pain heart thinking There are moments when our passions speak and decide for us ... like a fire kindled within our being to which everything else in us is mere fuel. George Eliot fuel passion fire There is no human being who having both passions and thoughts does not think in consequences of his passions--does not find images rising in his mind which soothe the passion with hope or sting it with dread. George Eliot passion mind thinking The best fire doesna flare up the soonest. George Eliot passion fire patience Life would be no better than candlelight tinsel and daylight rubbish if our spirits were not touched by what has been. George Eliot rubbish daylight past We mustn't be in a hurry to fix and choose our own lot; we must wait to be guided. George Eliot providence waiting There is no compensation for the woman who feels that the chief relation of her life has been no more than a mistake. She has lost her crown. The deepest secret of human blessedness has half whispered itself to her, and then forever passed her by. George Eliot secret mistake forever Religion, like all things, begins with self, And naught is known, until one knows himself. George Eliot all-things self religion Who can know how much of his most inward life is made up of the thoughts he believes other men to have about him, until that fabric of opinion is threatened with ruin? George Eliot fabric men believe To see an enemy humiliated gives a certain contentment, but this is jejune compared with the highly blent satisfaction of seeing him humiliated by your benevolent action or concession on his behalf. That is the sort of revenge which falls into the scale of virtue. George Eliot revenge giving fall Strong souls Live like fire-hearted suns to spend their strength In farthest striving action; breathe more free In mighty anguish than in trivial ease. George Eliot strong soul fire Let thy chief terror be of thine own soul: There, 'mid the throng of hurrying desires That trample o'er the dead to seize their spoil, Lurks vengeance, footless, irresistible As exhaltations laden with slow death, And o'er the fairest troop of captured joys Breathes pallid pestilence. George Eliot soul desire joy Perhaps there is no time in a summer's day more cheering, than when the warmth of the sun is just beginning to triumph over the freshness of the morning--when there is just a lingering hint of early coolness to keep off languor under the delicious influence of warmth. George Eliot cheer summer morning Surely, surely the only one true knowledge of our fellow man is that which enables us to feel with him--which gives us a fine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mere clothes of circumstance and opinion. George Eliot heart sympathy men Thought Has joys apart, even in blackest woe, And seizing some fine thread of verity Knows momentary godhead. George Eliot fine woe joy Sweet Truth is a queen proud and mighty-- Her throne is in heaven above. George Eliot queens truth sweet There comes a terrible moment to many souls when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into their own lives--when the slow urgency of growing generations turns into the tread of an invading army or the dire clash of civil war, and grey fathers know nothing to seek for but the corpses of their blooming sons, and girls forget all vanity to make lint and bandages which may serve for the shattered limbs of their betrothed husbands. George Eliot husband girl war The higher life begins for us ... when we renounce our own will to bow before a Divine law. George Eliot bows willpower law There's truth in wine, and there may be some in gin and muddy beer; but whether it's truth worth my knowing, is another question. George Eliot wine knowing beer Wit is a form of force that leaves the limbs at rest. George Eliot limbs force form
