The collection / 304 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

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304 results · Page 1 of 13Play this collection ▷

01Undated

It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.

George Eliot / quote

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02Undated

There are so many things—best things—that can only come when youth is past, that it may well happen to many of us to find ourselves happier and happier to the last.

George Eliot / quote

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03Undated

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

George Eliot / quote

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04Undated

My own experience and development deepens every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.

George Eliot / quote

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05Undated

We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil, that gradually determines character.

George Eliot / quote

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06Undated

I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. The realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.

George Eliot / quote

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07Undated

Nay, never falter; no great deed is done By falterers who ask for certainty. No good is certain but the steadfast mind, The undivided will to seek the good.

George Eliot / quote

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08Undated

May I reach That purest Heaven—be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be that sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible, Whose music is the gladness of the world.

George Eliot / quote

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09Undated

We can't choose happiness either for ourselves or for another; we can't tell where that will lie. We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment, or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us,—for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives. I know this belief is hard; it has slipped away from me again and again; but I have felt that if I let it go forever, I should have no light through the darkness of this life.

George Eliot / quote

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10Undated

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

George Eliot / quote

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11Undated

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?

George Eliot / quote

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12Undated

Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.'I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl's life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her... I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.

George Eliot / quote

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13Undated

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

George Eliot / quote

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14Undated

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

George Eliot / quote

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15Undated

But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: 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.

George Eliot / quote

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16Undated

Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.

George Eliot / quote

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17Undated

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

George Eliot / quote

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18Undated

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

George Eliot / quote

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19Undated

The progress of the world can certainly never come at all save by the modified action of the individual beings who compose the world.

George Eliot / quote

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20Undated

It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.

George Eliot / quote

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21Undated

People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.

George Eliot / quote

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22Undated

Upon my word, I think the truth is the hardest missile one can be pelted with.

George Eliot / quote

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23Undated

She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.

George Eliot / quote

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24Undated

What should I do—how should I act now, this very day . . . What she would resolve to do that day did not yet seem quite clear, but something that she could achieve stirred her as with an approaching murmur which would soon gather distinctness.

George Eliot / quote

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