There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration. George Eliot More Quotes by George Eliot More Quotes From George Eliot But, bless us, things may be lovable that are not altogether handsome, I hope? George Eliot handsome lovable may A man vows, and yet will not east away the means of breaking his vow. Is it that he distinctly means to break it? Not at all; but the desires which tend to break it are at work in him dimly, and make their way into his imagination, and relax his muscles in the very moments when he is telling himself over again the reasons for his vow. George Eliot imagination men mean To most mortals there is a stupidity which is unendurable and a stupidity which is altogether acceptable - else, indeed, what would become of social bonds? George Eliot unendurable stupidity social The select natures who pant after the ideal, and find nothing in pantaloons or petticoats great enough to command their reverence and love, are curiously in unison with the narrowest and pettiest. George Eliot select and-love enough We are overhasty to speak as if God did not manifest himself by our silent feeling, and make his love felt through ours. George Eliot his-love speak feelings Starting a long way off the true point, and proceeding by loops and zigzags , we now and then arrive just where we ought to be. George Eliot now-and-then long way Let my body dwell in poverty, and my hands be as the hands of the toiler; but let my soul be as a temple of remembrance where the treasures of knowledge enter and the inner sanctuary is hope. George Eliot remembrance soul hands If you deliver an opinion at all, it is mere stupidity not to do it with an air of conviction and well-founded knowledge. You make it your own in uttering it, and naturally get fond of it. George Eliot stupidity opinion air Try to take hold of your sensibility, and use it as if it were a faculty, like vision. George Eliot sensibility vision use Love has a way of cheating itself consciously, like a child who plays at solitary hide-and-seek; it is pleased with assurances that it all the while disbelieves. George Eliot play children cheating If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment. George Eliot should-have lying past 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. George Eliot space summer wings The most solid comfort one can fall back upon is the thought that the business of one's life is to help in some small way to reduce the sum of ignorance, degradation and misery on the face of this beautiful earth. George Eliot ignorance beautiful fall Few things hold the perception more thoroughly captive than anxiety about what we have got to say George Eliot captives anxiety perception Duty has a trick of behaving unexpectedly -- something like a heavy friend whom we have amiably asked to visit us, and who breaks his leg within our gates. George Eliot heavy legs break and we must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly-fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range of music, and will not vibrate in the least under a touch that fills others with tremulous rapture or quivering agony. George Eliot agony soul discovery For my part I am very sorry for him. It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self--never to be fully possessed by the glory we behold, never to have our consciousness rapturously transformed into the vividness of a thought, the ardour of a passion, the energy of an action, but always to be scholarly and uninspired, ambitious and timid, scrupulous and dimsighted. George Eliot passion self sorry She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel – that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth. George Eliot hardship earth want Surely there was something taught her by this experience of great need; and she must be learning a secret of human tenderness and long-suffering, that the less erring could hardly know? George Eliot suffering secret long Her heart went out to him with a stronger movement than ever, at the thought that people would blame him. Maggie hated blame; she had been blamed her whole life, and nothing had come of it but evil tempers. George Eliot evil heart people
