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 ELIOTWill 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 ELIOTIn bed our yesterdays are too oppressive: if a man can only get up, though it be but to whistle or to smoke, he has a present which offers some resistance to the past-sensations which assert themselves against tyrannous memories.
GEORGE ELIOTThe darkest night that ever fell upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the stars. It only made the stars more keenly, kindly glancing, as if in protest against the darkness.
GEORGE ELIOTLife seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
GEORGE ELIOTIt is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance in an hour pulls down.
GEORGE ELIOTPeople who live at a distance are naturally less faulty than those immediately under our own eyes.
GEORGE ELIOTExamining the world in order to find consolation is very much like looking carefully over the pages of a great book in order to find our own name . … Whether we find what we want or not, our preoccupation has hindered us from a true knowledge of the contents.
GEORGE ELIOTJoy and sorrow are both my perpetual companions, but the joy is called Past and the sorrow Present.
GEORGE ELIOTDo we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration?
GEORGE ELIOTSouls live on in perpetual echoes.
GEORGE ELIOTOnly in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.
GEORGE ELIOTHuman feeling is like the mighty rivers that bless the earth: it does not wait for beauty – it flows with resistless force and brings beauty with it.
GEORGE ELIOTIt is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.
GEORGE ELIOTIn travelling I shape myself betimes to idleness And take fools’ pleasure
GEORGE ELIOTWe are led on, like little children, by a way we know not.
GEORGE ELIOTReligious ideas have the fate of melodies, which, once set afloat in the world, are taken up by all sorts of instruments, some of them woefully coarse, feeble, or out of tune, until people are in danger of crying out that the melody itself is detestable.
GEORGE ELIOT