60 George Eliot Quotes

George Eliot, a renowned novelist, writes with passion.

She writes uniquely, intending to touch human souls. She was well-known as one of the most distinguished victorian writers.

During her early years as a writer, she started a new life by joining a new religion. Her ideas, writings, and books were known for their psychological reality and insight. George Eliot takes her works seriously, and her writings are restricted to light-hearted romances. One of her thoughts is that many victories are preferable to defeat. Most of the quotes listed here are from her famous works like 'Middlemarch', 'Daniel Deronda', 'Adam Bede', 'Silas Marner', and ‘The Mill On The Floss’. In this post, George Eliot's quotes are broken into inspirational quotes, quotes about love quotes about freedom, and quotes about sincerity.

Most of George Eliot's works centered on modern fiction are about light-hearted romances, love, virtue, and how important it is to appreciate human lives. Most of her quotes on love have been extracted from some of her works. Here are George Eliot's quotes and love that will interest you.

"It is easy to say how we love new friends and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old."

"How is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love?" - 'Adam Bede'

"Anger and jealousy can no more bear to lose sight of their objects than love." - 'The Mill On The Floss'

"I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved."

"What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life--to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?" - 'Adam Bede'

"Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another."

"What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life."

"It is not true that love makes all things easy; it makes us choose things that are difficult."

"Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return."

"Where women love each other, men learn to smother their mutual dislike."

"A woman may get to love by degrees—the best fire does not flare up the soonest."

"Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love."

George Eliot's life experience has contributed to her freedom quotes immensely. George Eliot's context of freedom is independence. She has always been a woman with a free spirit; her father confronted her for joining a new religion. Becoming a member of a new religion inspired most of her freedom quotes. Here is a few George Eliot quotes about freedom:

"I am not imposed upon by fine words; I can see what actions mean."

"..for 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."

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird, I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

"I am afraid of nothing but that we should miss the passing of our lives together."

"Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them."

"And when a woman's will is as strong as the man's who wants to govern her, half her strength must be concealment."

"We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by."

"The 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."

"You know nothing about Hope, that immortal, delicious maiden forever courted forever propitious, whom fools have called deceitful as if it were Hope that carried the cup of disappointment, whereas it is her deadly enemy."

"In every parting, there is an image of death."

"One can begin so many things with a new person! – even begin to be a better man."

One thing that makes George Eliot's quotes outstanding is that she writes sincerely from the heart. Some of her quotes touch the human soul by staring up emotions concerning genuineness, kindness, and love. Her sincerity has won the heart of those who take out time to read her work. This is because there is always an element of truth in her words. Here is some George Eliot quotes about sincerity that will interest you:

"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 mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave."

"The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life."

"We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves."

"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."

"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men."

"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses."

"Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities."

"Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through."

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

"If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?"

"I think I dislike what I don’t like more than I like what I like."

"It is better – it shall be better with me because I have known you."

"What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?"

"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."

"It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crop."

"A maggot must be born in the rotten cheese to like it."

"A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff, and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away."

"One must be poor to know the luxury of giving."

"The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice."

"It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much."

"Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand."

Some of George Eliot's inspiring famous works are, 'Daniel Deronda', 'Middlemarch', 'Adam Bede', ‘Silas Marner’, and ‘The Mill On The Floss’. Interestingly, you can draw inspiration, learn and even get motivated when reading her works. Most of the inspirational quotes listed here are taken from different parts of her works. Here are George Eliot's quotes to inspire you:

"An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down."

"We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, 'Oh, nothing!'"

"There are many victories worse than a defeat."

"It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view."

"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."

"It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees."

"It will always remain true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us."

"I should never like scolding anyone else so well; and that is a point to be thought of in a husband."

"I never had any preference for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing."

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

"Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles."

"This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear."

"The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history."

"Be courteous, be obliging, but don’t give yourself over to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow trade."

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

"Adventure is not outside man; it is within."