“yet you have made a great difference in my courage by believing in me.” - middlemarch, george eliot
(via loveistodismissyourfears)
“the hope was not unmixed with the glow of proud delight— the joyous maiden surprise that she was chosen by the man whom her admiration had chosen.” - middlemarch, george eliot
“was never true love loved in vain
for truest love is highest gain.
no art can make it: it must spring
where elements are fostering.
so in heaven’s spot and hour
springs the little native flower;
downward root and upward eye,
shapen by the earth and sky.”
middlemarch, george eliot
(via scribbles-and-wanderlust)
“and wrong reasoning sometimes lands poor mortals in right conclusions: starting a long way off the true point, and proceeding by loops and zigzags, we now and then arrive just where we ought to be.” - middlemarch, george eliot
(via greenlikebathwater)
“our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” - adam bede, george eliot
“your words of affection … are very dear to my remembrance. i like not only to be loved, but also to be told that i am loved. i am not sure that you are of the same mind. but the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. this is the world of light and speech, and i shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear to me.” - letter, george eliot
(via soverypretty)
“he distrusted her affection; and what loneliness is more lonely than distrust?” - middlemarch, george eliot
“our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds; and until we know what has been or will be the peculiar combination of outward with inward facts, which constitute a man’s critical actions, it will be better not to think ourselves wise about his character.” - adam bede, george eliot
“we must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what we imagine might have been. if i took to foolish wishing of that sort, i should wish— not that i had never seen you, but that i had been able to save you from this.” - daniel deronda, george eliot
“how is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? are their first poems their best? or are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections?” - adam bede, george eliot
“one can say everything best over a meal.” - adam bede, george eliot
“if you despair of me, i shall despair. your saying that i should not go on being selfish and ignorant has been some strength to me. if you say you wish you had not meddled— that means you despair of me and forsake me. and then you will decide for me that i shall not be good. it is you who will decide; because you might have made me different by keeping as near to me as you could, and believing in me.” - daniel deronda, george eliot
“you will tell me if there is anything i forget?” he said, keeping the hand softly within his own. “i will do anything you wish.”
“but i am very unreasonable in my wishes,” said gwendolen, smiling.
“yes, i expect that. women always are.”
daniel deronda, george eliot
“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.” - daniel deronda, george eliot
