33 quotes
High achievements demand some other unusual qualification besides an unusual desire for high prizes.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
If a man means to be hard, let him keep in his saddle and speak from that height, above the level of pleading eyes, and with the command of a distant horizon.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
If boys and men are to be welded together in the glow of transient feeling, they must be made of metal that will mix, else they inevitably fall asunder when the heat dies out.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it...
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. How can we ever be satisfied without them until our feelings are deadened?
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
If I got places, sir, it was because I made myself fit for 'em. If you want to slip into a round hole, you must make a ball of yourself; that's where it is.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
One gets a bad habit of being unhappy.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
But then the need of being loved, the strongest need ... in poor Maggie's nature, began to wrestle with her pride and soon threw it.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
There was no gleam, no shadow, for the heavens, too, were one still, pale cloud; no sound or motion in anything but the dark river that flowed and moaned like an unresting sorrow.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice . . .
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
It is doubtful whether our soldiers would be maintained if there were not pacific people at home who like to fancy themselves soldiers. War, like other dramatic spectacles, might possibly cease for want of a "public."
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs, and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
There is something strangely winning to most women in that offer of the firm arm; the help is not wanted physically at that moment, but the sense of help, the presence of strength that is outside them and yet theirs, meets a continual want of the imagination.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)