259 quotes
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
I couldn't live in peace if I put the shadow of a wilful sin between myself and God.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
We are not apt to fear for the fearless, when we are companions in their danger.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Grant folly's prayers that hinder folly's wish,
And serve the ends of wisdom.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
Mysterious haunts of echoes old and far,
The voice divine of human loyalty.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
Inclination snatches arguments
To make indulgence seem judicious choice.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
For purest pity is the eye of love
Melting at sight of sorrow.
Women know no perfect love:
Loving the strong, they can forsake the strong;
Man clings because the being whom he loves
Is weak and needs him.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
Death is the king of this world: 'tis his park
Where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain
Are music for his banquet.
Spanish Gypsy (1868)
For strong souls
Live like fire-hearted suns; to spend their strength
In furthest striving action.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
O that grave speech would cumber our quick souls,
Like bells that waste the moments with their loudness.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
I would not creep along the coast but steer
Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars.
Middlemarch (1871)
There are * * * robberies that leave man or woman forever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer.
Life's a vast sea
That does its mighty errand without fail,
Painting in unchanged strength though waves are changing.
Spanish Gypsy (1868)
History, we know, is apt to repeat herself, and to foist very old incidents upon us with only a slight change of costume.
In travelling
I shape myself betimes to idleness
And take fools' pleasure.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
"There's folks as make bad butter and trusten to the salt t' hide it."
Adam Bede (1859)
Nothing is feebler than the indolent rebellion of complaint...
Daniel Deronda (1876)