Fancy 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 EliotCollege mostly makes people like bladders-just good for nothing but t'hold the stuff as is poured into 'em.
George EliotWhat people do who go into politics I can't think; it drives me almost mad to see mismanagement over only a few hundred acres.
George EliotCharacter is not cut in marble - it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.
George Eliot