GEORGE ELIOT QUOTES Quicklyfind - Quotes on just about anything!
(Mary Ann Evans) (1819 - 1880) and from "O May I Join the Choir Invisible" (1867) "O may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge men's search To vaster issues." "So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, Breathing a beauteous order that controls With growing sway the growing life of man." "This is life to come,— Which martyred men have made more glorious For us who strive to follow. May I reach That purest heaven, — be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world." Verified "I wish to use my last hours of ease and strength in telling the strange story of my experience. I have never fully unbosomed myself to any human being; I have never been encouraged to trust much in the sympathy of my fellow-men. But we have all a chance of meeting with some pity, some tenderness, some charity, when we are dead: it is the living only who cannot be forgiven —the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind. While the heart beats, bruise it —it is your only opportunity; while the eye can still turn towards you with moist, timid entreaty, freeze it with an icy unanswering gaze; while the ear, that delicate messenger to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, can still take in the tones of kindness, put it off with hard civility, or sneering compliment, or envious affectation of indifference; while the creative brain can still throb with the sense of injustice, with the yearning for brotherly recognition —make haste —oppress it with your ill-considered judgements, your trivial comparisons, your careless misrepresentations." Source: The Lifted Veil (1859) "I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best." Source: from the novel Felix Holt, The Radical (1866) "The best augury of a mans success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world" Source: from the novel Daniel Deronda (1876) "The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." Source: Middlemarch (final lines) (1871) "There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music." Source: The Mill on the Floss (1860) "They kissed each other with a deep joy. What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?" Source: from the novel Adam Bede (1859) "What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? I cannot be indifferent to the troubles of a man who advised me in MY trouble, and attended me in my illness." Source: Middlemarch (1871) Attributed My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy. Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. Those who trust us educate us. See: list of people by name
from "O May I Join the Choir Invisible" (1867) "O may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence; live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge men's search To vaster issues." "So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, Breathing a beauteous order that controls With growing sway the growing life of man." "This is life to come,— Which martyred men have made more glorious For us who strive to follow. May I reach That purest heaven, — be to other souls The cup of strength in some great agony, Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty, Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, And in diffusion ever more intense! So shall I join the choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world." Verified "I wish to use my last hours of ease and strength in telling the strange story of my experience. I have never fully unbosomed myself to any human being; I have never been encouraged to trust much in the sympathy of my fellow-men. But we have all a chance of meeting with some pity, some tenderness, some charity, when we are dead: it is the living only who cannot be forgiven —the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind. While the heart beats, bruise it —it is your only opportunity; while the eye can still turn towards you with moist, timid entreaty, freeze it with an icy unanswering gaze; while the ear, that delicate messenger to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, can still take in the tones of kindness, put it off with hard civility, or sneering compliment, or envious affectation of indifference; while the creative brain can still throb with the sense of injustice, with the yearning for brotherly recognition —make haste —oppress it with your ill-considered judgements, your trivial comparisons, your careless misrepresentations." Source: The Lifted Veil (1859) "I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best." Source: from the novel Felix Holt, The Radical (1866) "The best augury of a mans success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world" Source: from the novel Daniel Deronda (1876) "The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." Source: Middlemarch (final lines) (1871) "There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music." Source: The Mill on the Floss (1860) "They kissed each other with a deep joy. What greater thing is there for two human souls, than to feel that they are joined for life - to strengthen each other in all labour, to rest on each other in all sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?" Source: from the novel Adam Bede (1859) "What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult to each other? I cannot be indifferent to the troubles of a man who advised me in MY trouble, and attended me in my illness." Source: Middlemarch (1871) Attributed My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy. Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand. Those who trust us educate us. See: list of people by name