I like trying to get pregnant. I'm not so sure about childbirth.
George Eliot

I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out.
George Eliot

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.
George Eliot

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.
George Eliot

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.
George Eliot

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.
George Eliot

In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness.
George Eliot

In every parting there is an image of death.
George Eliot

In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.
George Eliot

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.
George Eliot

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?
George Eliot

It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us.
George Eliot

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.
George Eliot

It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.
George Eliot

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.
George Eliot

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
George Eliot

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.
George Eliot

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.
George Eliot

Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down.
George Eliot