No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
George Eliot'Tis God gives skill, but not without men's hand: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius's violins without Antonio.
George EliotMarriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honey-moon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which make the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.
George Eliot