Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual lifeโโthe life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose withinโโcan understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances.
George EliotIn the days when the spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses--and even great ladies, clothed in silk and thread lace, had their toy spinning wheels of polished oak--there might be seen, in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain palled undersized men who, by the side of the brawny country-folk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race.
George Eliot