in certain crises direct expression of sympathy is the least possible to those who most feel sympathy.
George EliotThere is a sort of subjection which is the peculiar heritage of largeness and of love; and strength is often only another name for willing bondage to irremediable weakness.
George EliotYou must mind and not lower the Church in people's eyes by seeming to be frightened about it for such a little thing.
George EliotHobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.
George EliotSome discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind, and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.
George Eliot