Top 500 George Eliot Quotes (2024 Update)

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

— George Eliot

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2. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

— George Eliot

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3. “A friend is one to whom one may pour out the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that gentle hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

— George Eliot

4. “History repeats itself.”

— George Eliot

5. “What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?”

— George Eliot

6. “Go forward with joyful confidence.”

— George Eliot

7. “The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.”

— George Eliot

8. “What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.”

— George Eliot

9. “Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.”

— George Eliot

10. “Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.”

— George Eliot

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

— George Eliot

12. “Adventure is not outside man; it is within.”

— George Eliot

13. “Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.”

— George Eliot

14. “It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.”

— George Eliot

15. “Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.”

— George Eliot

16. “No man can be wise on an empty stomach.”

— George Eliot

17. “Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing.”

— George Eliot

18. “I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.”

— George Eliot

19. “The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.”

— George Eliot

20. “What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?”

— George Eliot

21. “All meanings, we know, depend on the key of interpretation.”

— George Eliot

22. “Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.”

— George Eliot

23. “Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right.”

— George Eliot

24. “We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.”

— George Eliot

25. “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.”

— George Eliot

26. “No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.”

— George Eliot

27. “Hear Everything and judge for yourself.”

— George Eliot

28. “A fool or idiot is one who expects things to happen that never can happen.”

— George Eliot

29. “It is as useless to fight against the interpretations of ignorance as to whip the fog.”

— George Eliot

30. “The law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake, should they not? People’s lives and fortunes depend on them.”

— George Eliot

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

— George Eliot

32. “Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.”

— George Eliot

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

— George Eliot

34. “It is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance in an hour pulls down.”

— George Eliot

35. “The beauty of a lovely woman is like music.”

— George Eliot

36. “What novelty is worth the sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is known?”

— George Eliot

37. “Those who trust us educate us.”

— George Eliot

38. “Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts – not to hurt others.”

— George Eliot

39. “Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.”

— George Eliot

40. “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

41. “No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.”

— George Eliot

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

— George Eliot

43. “Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.”

— George Eliot

44. “I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.”

— George Eliot

45. “What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.”

— George Eliot

46. “A woman’s hopes are woven of sunbeams; a shadow annihilates them.”

— George Eliot

47. “Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.”

— George Eliot

48. “Say “I love you” to those you love. The eternal silence is long enough to be silent in, and that awaits us all.”

— George Eliot

49. “Selfish – a judgment readily passed by those who have never tested their own power of sacrifice.”

— George Eliot

50. “So our lives glide on: the river ends we don’t know where, and the sea begins, and then there is no more jumping ashore.”

— George Eliot