"Life is too precious to be spent in this weaving and unweaving of false impressions, and it is better to live quietly under some degree of misrepresentation than to attempt to remove it by the uncertain process of letter-writing."

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More quotes from: George Eliot

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• "Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life. "
• "Adventure is not outside man; it is within. "
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• "Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms. "
• "Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning, but give me the ..."
• "Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them. "
• "Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness! "
• "Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. "
• "Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of ..."
• "Blows are sarcasm's turned stupid. "
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• "But human experience is usually paradoxical, that means incongruous with the phrases of current talk ..."
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• "But the mother's yearning, that completest type of the life in another life which is ..."
• "Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful ..."
• "Consequences are unpitying. "
• "Death is the king of this world: 'Tis his park where he breeds life to ..."
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• "Excessive literary production is a social offense. "
• "Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up. "
• "Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who ..."
• "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought ..."
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• "He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow. "
• "Here undoubtedly lies the chief poetic energy: -in the force of imagination that pierces or ..."
• "I at least have so much to do in unraveling certain human lots, and seeing ..."
• "I desire no future that will break the ties with the past. "
• "I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence. "
• "I hold it a blasphemy to say that a man ought not to fight against ..."
• "I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved. "
• "I like trying to get pregnant. I'm not so sure about childbirth. "
• "I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is ..."
• "I tell you there isn't a thing under the sun that needs to be done ..."
• "I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men. "
• "I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ..."

• "If we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because ..."
• "Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as ..."
• "In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness. "
• "In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and ..."
• "In the schoolroom her quick mind had taken readily that strong starch of unexplained rules ..."
• "In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause. "
• "Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands ..."
• "It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a ..."
• "It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of ..."
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• "It is never too late to be what you might have been. "
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• "It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant ..."
• "Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress. "
• "Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest ..."
• "Kisses honeyed by oblivion. "
• "Might, could, would - they are contemptible auxiliaries. "
• "More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not ..."
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• "One must be poor to know the luxury of giving! "
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• "Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without ..."
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• "Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds. "
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• "Our instructed vagrancy, which has hardly time to linger by the hedgerows, but runs away ..."
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• "Perhaps his might be one of the natures where a wise estimate of consequences is ..."
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