Quotations by Author

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.

But the mother's yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is the essence of real human love, feels the presence of the cherished child even in the debased, degraded man.

Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty.

A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.

My childhood was full of deep sorrows -- colic, whooping-cough, dread of ghosts, hell, Satan, and a Deity in the sky who was angry when I ate too much plumcake.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.