How will you find good? It is not a thing of choice; it is a river that flows from the foot of the Invisible Throne and flows by the path of obedience.
George EliotNo story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
George Eliottrouble always seems heavier when it is only one's thought and not one's bodily activity that is employed about it.
George EliotI think any hardship is better than pretending to do what one is paid for, and never really doing it.
George EliotFancy what a game of chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; if you were not only uncertain about your adversary's men, but a little uncertain also about your own. You would be especially likely to be beaten, if you depended arrogantly on your mathematical imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces with contempt. Yet this imaginary chess is easy compared with a game a man has to play against his fellow-men with other fellow-men for instruments.
George Eliot