It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a man's death hallows him anew to us; as if life were not sacred too.

And 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

We are contented with our day when we have been able to bear our grief in silence, and act as if we were not suffering.

One soweth and another reapeth is a verity that applies to evil as well as good.

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

I not only want to be loved, I want to be told that I'm loved.

We are on a perilous margin when we begin to look passively at our future selves, and see our own figures led with dull consent into insipid misdoing and shabby achievement.