What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.
George EliotAnd Dorothea..she had no dreams of being praised above other women. Feeling that there was always something better which she might have done if she had only been better and known better, her full nature spent itself in deeds which left no great name on the earth, but the effect of her being on those around her was incalculable. For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and on all those Dorotheas who life faithfully their hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Middlemarch
George EliotShall we, because we walk on our hind feet, assume to ourselves only the privilege of imperishability?
George EliotThere's no disappointment in memory, and one's exaggerations are always on the good side.
George Eliot