George Eliot

Novelist, Poet, Journalist

George Eliot was a pioneering English novelist known for her deep psychological insight and exploration of social issues in works like Middlemarch.

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Born: November 22, 1819
Died: December 22, 1880
Quotes: 1K
Rank: #75

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George Eliot quotes (page 46 of 51)

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George Eliot Novelist, Poet, Journalist

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"I think the effective use of quotation is an important point in the art of writing. Given sparingly, quotations serve admirably as a climax or as a corroboration, but when they are long and frequent, they seriously weaken the effect of a book. We lose sight of the writer - he scatters our sympathy among others than himself - and the ideas which he himself advances are not knit together with our impression of his personality."

Art Book Writing

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"Unhappily the habit of being offensive 'without meaning it' leads usually to a way of making amends which the injured person cannot but regard as a being amiable without meaning it."

Way Offensive Habit

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"I wish always to be quoted as George Eliot."

Names Wish Eliot

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"How impossible it is for strong healthy people to understand the way in which bodily malaise and suffering eats at the root of one's life! The philosophy that is true - the religion that is strength to the healthy - is constantly emptiness to one when the head is distracted and every sensation is oppressive."

Strong Philosophy Roots

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"What moments of despair that life would ever be made precious to me by the consciousness that I lived to some good purpose! It was that sort of despair that sucked away the sap of half the hours which might have been filled by energetic youthful activity: and the same demon tries to get hold of me again whenever an old work is dismissed and a new one is being meditated."

Despair Trying Sap

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"People who write finely must not expect to be left in repose; they will be molested with thanks, at least."

Writing People Thanks

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"... the business of life shuts us up within the environs of London and within sight of human advancement, which I should be so very glad to believe in without seeing."

Believe Sight London

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"Yes, Isaac Taylor, who has just published 'The World of Mind,' is the Isaac Taylor, author of the 'Natural History of Enthusiasm.' I dare say by this time there is a want of fatty particles in his brain."

Mind Brain Want

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"The worst service, I fancy, that anyone can do for truth, is to set silly people writing on its behalf."

Silly Writing People

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"If I could only fancy myself clever, it would be better, but to be a failure of Nature and to know it is not a comfortable lot. It is the last lesson one learns, to be contented with one's inferiority -- but it must be learned."

Clever Lessons Fancy

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"... one's own faults are always a heavy chain to drag through life and one can't help groaning under the weight now and then."

Faults Weight Helping

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"Dear Friends all, A thousand Christmas pleasures and blessings to you -- good resolutions and bright hopes for the New Year! Amen. People who can't be witty exert themselves to be pious or affectionate."

New Year Witty Blessing

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"Loquacity with tongue or pen is its own reward -- or, punishment."

Punishment Rewards Tongue

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"In the first moments when we come away from the presence of death, every other relation to the living is merged, to our feeling, in the great relation of a common nature and a common destiny."

Destiny Feelings Firsts

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"He had the superficial kindness of a good-humored, self-satisfied nature, that fears no rivalry, and has encountered no contrarieties."

Kindness Self Rivalry

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"... when one's outward lot is perfect, the sense of inward imperfection is the more pressing."

Perfect Imperfection Inward

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"What courage and patience are wanted for every life that aims to produce anything!"

Produce Aim Wanted

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"If you are to rule men, you must rule them through their own ideas."

Men Ideas Ifs

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"Receptiveness is a rare and massive power, like fortitude."

Fortitude Massive

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"Unwonted circumstances may make us all rather unlike ourselves: there are conditions under which the most majestic person is obliged to sneeze, and our emotions are liable to be acted on in the same incongruous manner."

May Majestic Emotion

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