259 quotes
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.
Adam Bede (1859)
Our growing thought
Makes growing revelation.
Spanish Gypsy (1868)
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!
Middlemarch (1871)
It is well known to all experienced minds that our firmest convictions are often dependent on subtle impressions for which words are quite too coarse a medium.
Adam Bede (1859)
Instead of trying to still his fears he encouraged them, with that superstitious impression which clings to us all, that if we expect evil very strongly it is the less likely to come; . . .
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (1861)
The mother's yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the debased, degraded man.
Daniel Deronda (1876)
The worst of misery
Is when a nature framed for noblest things
Condemns itself in youth to petty joys,
And, sore athirst for air, breathes scanty life
Gasping from out the shallows.
The Spanish Gypsy (1868)
Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heart-beats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed.
Middlemarch (1871)
I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same kind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.
You told me the truth when you said to me once, "There's a sort of wrong that can never be made up for".
Adam Bede (1859)
Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.
Daniel Deronda (1876)
Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before — consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves.
Adam Bede (1859)
These 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.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
He seemed to weave, like the spider, from pure impulse, without reflection. Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (1861)
The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
Those who trust us educate us.
Daniel Deronda (1876)
What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? I cannot be indifferent to the troubles of a man who advised me in my trouble, and attended me in my illness.
Middlemarch (1871)
High achievements demand some other unusual qualification besides an unusual desire for high prizes.
The Mill on the Floss (1860)
Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.
Daniel Deronda (1876)
But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.
Middlemarch (1871)