Sir Joshua would have been glad to take her portrait; and he would have had an easier task than the historian at least in this, that he would not have had to represent the truth of change –only to give stability to one beautiful moment. – George Eliot
Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. – George Eliot
The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistorical 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
When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. – George Eliot