Quotes from George Eliot

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.

Animals are such agreeable friends?they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

Hold up your head! You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward with a joyful confidence.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Our deeds are like children that are born to us; they live and act apart from our own will. Nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness.

'Tis God gives skill, but not without men's hands: he could not make Antonio Stradivarius violins without Antonio.

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

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

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

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

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 they tie their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little.

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