There's no disappointment in memory, and one's exaggerations are always on the good side.

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.

When a homemaking aunt scolds a niece for following her evangelistic passion instead of domestic pursuits, her reply is interesting. First, she clarifies that God's individual call on her doesn't condemn those in more conventional roles. Then, she says she can no more ignore the cry of the lost than her aunt can the cry of her child.

The best augury of a man's success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

To have suffered much is like knowing many languages. Thou hast learned to understand all.

I wish always to be quoted as George Eliot.

No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.