George Eliot

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

It is easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.

There is no short-cut no patent tram-road, to wisdom. After all the centuries of invention, the soul's path lies through the thorny wilderness which must still be trodden in solitude, with bleeding feet, with sobs for help, as it was trodden by them of old time.

One couldn't carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves.

That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he's wise.

. . . for 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.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined . . . to strengthen each other . . . to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

It is a vain thought to flee from the work that God appoints us, for the sake of finding a greater blessing; instead of seeking it where alone it is to be found - in loving obedience.