George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Felix Holt, the Radical, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda, most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth22 November 1819
weakness common mercy
There is a mercy which is weakness, and even treason against the common good.
life games play
Life is like a game of whist. I don't enjoy the game much; but I like to play my cards well, and see what will be the end of it.
sweet knowledge novelty
What novelty is worth the sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is known?
foolish seems reasoning
It is in the nature of foolish reasonings to seem good to the foolish reasoner.
may stories reputation
Whatever may be the success of my stories, I shall be resolute in preserving my incognito, having observed that a nom de plume secures all the advantages without the disagreeables of reputation.
memories kindness children
In the man whose childhood has known caresses and kindness, there is always a fiber of memory that can be touched to gentle issues.
missing comfort cushions
Them as ha' never had a cushion don't miss it.
thinking looks looking-good
If a woman's young and pretty, I think you can see her good looks all the better for her being plainly dressed.
beauty lovely lovely-woman
The beauty of a lovely woman is like music.
believe world belief
We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.
ideas way looks
One way of getting an idea of our fellow-countrymen's miseries is to go and look at their pleasures.
saws merit neutrality
Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.
tragedy needs gone
What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?
opportunity views cheerful
To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion.