Middlemarch Quotes:

Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (1873). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.7

topic: Soul, Suits, Middlemarch, Complexion

That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil -- widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.

- George Eliot

topic: Struggle, Light, Evil, Middlemarch, Divine Power

And Dorothea..she had no dreams of being praised above other women. Feeling that there was always something better which she might have done if she had only been better and known better, her full nature spent itself in deeds which left no great name on the earth, but the effect of her being on those around her was incalculable. For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and on all those Dorotheas who life faithfully their hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Middlemarch

- George Eliot

topic: Dream, Names, Feelings, Middlemarch

But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: 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.

- George Eliot

topic: Life, Numbers, Owing, Middlemarch

People are so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool's caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else's are transparent, making themselves exceptions to everything, as if when all the world looked yellow under a lamp they alone are rosy.

- George Eliot

topic: Lying, Thinking, Yellow, Middlemarch

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

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.462, Delphi Classics

topic: Women, Stupid, Ems, Middlemarch

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

- George Eliot

topic: Self, Objectivity, Vision, Middlemarch, Specks

Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.

- George Eliot

topic: Hurt, Pride, Helping, Middlemarch

Oh may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence.

- George Eliot

source: "Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible" l. 1 (1867)

topic: Mind, May, Invisible, Middlemarch

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

- George Eliot

topic: Views, Perspective, Perception, Middlemarch, Narrow Minds

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2016). “George Eliot Collection: Middlemarch, Adam Bede, Silas Marner, The Lifted Veil, and The Mill on the Floss”, p.935, Xist Publishing

topic: Lonely, Loneliness, Being Alone, Middlemarch, Lonely And Alone

It is in these acts called trivialities that the seeds of joy are forever wasted, until men and women look round with haggard faces at the devastation their own waste has made, and say, the earth bears no harvest of sweetness - calling their denial knowledge.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (1873). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.148

topic: Men, Joy, Forever, Middlemarch, Haggard

You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot “Middlemarch, Volume III”, Lulu.com

topic: Love You, Pride, Thinking, Middlemarch, Love Your Work

The nature o' things doesn't change, though it seems as if one's own life was nothing but change.

- George Eliot

topic: Middlemarch

We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, "Oh, nothing!" Pride helps; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts— not to hurt others.

- George Eliot

topic: Hurt, Disappointment, Pride, Middlemarch, Dinner Time

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

- George Eliot

topic: Hope, Pain, Live Life, Middlemarch, Eagerness

Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.

- George Eliot

source: 1871-2 Middlemarch, bk.1, ch.1.

topic: People, Might, Neighbor, Middlemarch

And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.

- George Eliot

topic: Men, Middlemarch

To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2016). “Middlemarch”, p.683, Xist Publishing

topic: Opportunity, Views, Cheerful, Candor, Middlemarch

People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.

- George Eliot

topic: People, Bravery, Might, Middlemarch

It is a truism of epistolary psychology that, for example, a Christmas thank-you note written on December 26 can say any old thing, but if you wait until February, you are convinced that nothing less than Middlemarch will do.

- Anne Fadiman

topic: Old Things, Waiting, Psychology, Middlemarch, Truism

A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.

- George Eliot

topic: Marriage, Order, May, Middlemarch, Before Marriage

Character is not cut in marble - it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.

- George Eliot

topic: Character, Cutting, Body, Middlemarch

Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion.

- George Eliot

topic: Errors, Feelings, Illusion, Middlemarch

For pain must enter into its glorified life of memory before it can turn into compassion.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.6067, Delphi Classics

topic: Pain, Memories, Compassion, Middlemarch

Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honey-moon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic - the gradual conquest or irremediable loss of that complete union which make the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.542, Penguin

topic: Sweet, Memories, Home, Middlemarch, Sweet Memories

Confound you handsome young fellows! You think of having it all your own way in the world. You don't understand women. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.365, Wordsworth Editions

topic: Thinking, Half, World, Middlemarch, Admire You

After all, the true seeing is within.

- George Eliot

topic: Middlemarch

If there is a perfect book to start the year with it has to be Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch.

- The Edge

topic: Book, Years, Perfect, Middlemarch, Rebecca

You must love your work and not always be looking over the edge of it wanting your play to begin.

- George Eliot

source: George Eliot (2015). “Middlemarch”, p.608, Booklassic

topic: Work, Love You, Play, Middlemarch, Love Your Work

Middlemarch, the magnificent book which with all its imperfections is one of the few English novels for grown-up people.

- Virginia Woolf

topic: Book, People, Imperfection, Middlemarch

Rebecca Mead's My Life in Middlemarch is a wise, humane, and delightful study of what some regard as the best novel in English. Mead has discovered an original and highly personal way to make herself an inhabitant both of the book and of George Eliot's imaginary city. Though I have read and taught the book these many years I find myself desiring to go back to it after reading Rebecca Mead's work.

- Harold Bloom

topic: Wise, Book, Reading, Middlemarch, Rebecca

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

- George Eliot

topic: Missing, Dresses, Relief, Middlemarch

It is always fatal to have music or poetry interrupted.

- George Eliot

topic: Music, Middlemarch

Destiny stands by sarcastic with our dramatis personae folded in her hand.

- George Eliot

topic: Sarcastic, Destiny, Hands, Middlemarch

It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self.

- George Eliot

topic: Self, Taught, Aging, Uneasy, Middlemarch

But I too hate long books: the better, the worse. If they're bad they merely make me pant with the effort of holding them up for a few minutes. But if they're good, I turn into a social moron for days, refusing to go out of my room, scowling and growling at interruptions, ignoring weddings and funerals, and making enemies out of friends. I still bear the scars of Middlemarch.

- Vikram Seth

topic: Hate, Book, Long, Middlemarch, Growling

But the novels of women were not affected only by the necessarily narrow range of the writer's experience. They showed, at least in the nineteenth century, another characteristic which may be traced to the writer's sex. In Middlemarch and in Jane Eyre we are conscious not merely of the writer's character, as we are conscious of the character of Charles Dickens, but we are conscious of a woman's presence of someone resenting the treatment of her sex and pleading for its rights.

- Virginia Woolf

source: Virginia Woolf (2009). “Selected Essays”, p.245, OUP Oxford

topic: Sex, Character, Rights, Middlemarch, Pleading

I had not read George Eliot, so read a few. I felt ashamed I hadn't read "Middlemarch" before.

- Stephen Dobyns

source: Source: www.bostonglobe.com

topic: Middlemarch

What's your favorite book?' is a question that is usually only asked by children and banking identity-verification services--and favorite isn't, anyway, the right word to describe the relationship a reader has with a particularly cherished book. Most serious readers can point to one book that has a place in their life like the one that 'Middlemarch' has in mine.

- Rebecca Mead

source: Rebecca Mead (2014). “My Life in Middlemarch”, p.184, Broadway Books

topic: Children, Book, Identity, Favorite Book, Middlemarch

Great literature cannot grow from a neglected or impoverished soil. Only if we actually tend or care will it transpire that every hundred years or so we might get a Middlemarch.

- P. D. James

topic: Years, Care, Might, Great Literature, Middlemarch

You come home to find your 17-year-old daughter engrossed in a book. Which would delight you more - if it were 'Twilight' or 'Middlemarch?'

- Michael Gove

topic: Mother, Daughter, Book, Middlemarch

You are a good young man," she said. "But I do not like husbands. I will never have another.

- George Eliot

topic: Husband, Men, Said, Middlemarch