We are all humiliated by the sudden discovery of a fact which has existed very comfortably and perhaps been staring at us in private while we have been making up our world entirely without it.
George EliotThere is a sort of human paste that when it comes near the fire of enthusiasm is only baked into harder shape.
George EliotIn bed our yesterdays are too oppressive: if a man can only get up, though it be but to whistle or to smoke, he has a present which offers some resistance to the pastโsensations which assert themselves against tyrannous memories.
George EliotIn so complex a thing as human nature, we must consider it is hard to find rules without exception.
George EliotThese fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are: you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions; and it is these people-amongst whom your life is passed-that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love: it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire-for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible patience.
George Eliot