A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. – George Eliot
It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because ones own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care. – George Eliot
You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know. – George Eliot
Greatness lies, not in being strong, but in the right using of strength and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own. – Henry Ward Beecher