The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
George EliotIt is better sometimes not to follow great reformers of abuses beyond the threshold of their homes.
George EliotGossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.
George EliotIt so often happens that others are measuring us by our past self while we are looking back on that self with a mixture of disgust and sorrow.
George Eliot... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.
George Eliot