30 George Eliot phrases to dive into the writer’s world

It takes many years to learn to be happy.

When death comes, it is not our tenderness that we regret: it is our severity.

What we call our despair is often the painful greed of unsatisfied hope.

I don’t want any future that breaks the bonds of the past.

A woman’s luck depends on the love she accepts.

If art does not increase the sympathies of men, it does nothing morally.

Blessed is the influence of one truth: one human soul in love with another.

It seems to me that we can never give up yearning and desiring while we are still alive. There are certain things that we consider beautiful and good, and we should crave them.

No evil irremediably condemns us, except the evil we love, and wish to continue, and make no effort to escape.

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

We want people to feel the same way we do, rather than act for us.

Men know most about everything except what women know best.

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

Animals are such pleasant friends: they don’t ask questions, they don’t criticize.

The first condition of human goodness is that there is something worth loving; the second, something to revere.

What loneliness is lonelier than mistrust?

What do we live for except to make life less difficult for others?

The difference in tastes, in jokes, has a devastating effect on friendships.

Roses will never rain: if we want more roses, we will have to plant more trees.

The only failure that a man should fear is failure to cling to the purpose he thinks is best.

Poetry, art and knowledge are sacred and pure.

It is certainly better to forgive too much than to condemn too much.

For pain must enter your glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion.

Those who trust us educate us.

It’s never too late to be what you always wanted to be.

Guilt-free people are always the most exasperating.

Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only drives us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.

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

I had some ambition, I wanted everything to be different with me. I thought I had more strength and mastery, but the most terrible obstacles are those that no one can see but themselves.