Quotes by Eliot, George

"Renunciation remains sorrow, though a sorrow borne willingly."

Eliot, George on abstinence   

"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."

Eliot, George on adversity
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"In the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little."

Eliot, George on age and aging   

"Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age."

Eliot, George on age and aging   

"How could a man be satisfied with a decision between such alternatives and under such circumstances? No more than he can be satisfied with his hat, which he's chosen from among such shapes as the resources of the age offer him, wearing it at best with a resignation which is chiefly supported by comparison."

Eliot, George on decisions   

"Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are."

Eliot, George on deeds and good deeds
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"Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds."

Eliot, George on deeds and good deeds
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"But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope."

Eliot, George on despair
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"To act with doubleness towards a man whose own conduct was double, was so near an approach to virtue that it deserved to be called by no meaner name than diplomacy."

Eliot, George on diplomacy   

"The sense of an entailed disadvantage -- the deformed foot doubtfully hidden by the shoe, makes a restlessly active spiritual yeast, and easily turns a self-centered, unloving nature into an Ishmaelite. But in the rarer sort, who presently see their own frustrated claim as one among a myriad, the inexorable sorrow takes the form of fellowship and makes the imagination tender."

Eliot, George on disability   

"What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?"

Eliot, George on disasters   

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"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."

Eliot, George on doubt
11 fans of this quote   

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

Eliot, George on dream
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"The reward of one's duty is the power to fulfill another."

Eliot, George on duty   

"Those who trust us educate us."

Eliot, George on education
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"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."

Eliot, George on egotism   

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"You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable."

Eliot, George on eloquence   

"No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from."

Eliot, George on evil
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"One soweth and another reapeth is a verity that applies to evil as well as good."

Eliot, George on evil   

"The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character."

Eliot, George on example   

"Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world."

Eliot, George on excellence
4 fans of this quote   

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"Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand."

Eliot, George on expectation
3 fans of this quote   

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"But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk or even current philosophy."

Eliot, George on experience
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"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?"

Eliot, George on experience   

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."

Eliot, George on facts
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"There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows."

Eliot, George on failure   

"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure."

Eliot, George on failure
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"The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best."

Eliot, George on failure   

"To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion."

Eliot, George on feelings
5 fans of this quote   

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"I at least have so much to do in unraveling certain human lots, and seeing how they were woven and interwoven, that all the light I can command must be concentrated on this particular web, and not dispersed over that tempting range of relevancies called the universe."

Eliot, George on fiction   

"In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause."

Eliot, George on fools and foolishness   

"Would not love see returning penitence afar off, and fall on its neck and kiss it?"

Eliot, George on forgiveness
3 fans of this quote   

"Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!"

Eliot, George on friends and friendship   

"Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking."

Eliot, George on friends and friendship
5 fans of this quote   

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"Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up."

Eliot, George on friends and friendship   

"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."

Eliot, George on funerals   

"I desire no future that will break the ties with the past."

Eliot, George on the future
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"Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline."

Eliot, George on genius   

"It's them as take advantage that get advantage in this world."

Eliot, George on getting ahead   

"A toddling little girl is a center of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other."

Eliot, George on girls