George Eliot was a female writer in the Victorian era who foreshadowed the coming emergence of women as a force in society.

Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.
George Eliot

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.
George Eliot

Quarrel? Nonsense; we have not quarreled. If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?
George Eliot

Rome – the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.
George Eliot

Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.
George Eliot

That’s what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he’s wise.
George Eliot

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.
George Eliot

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.
George Eliot

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.
George Eliot

The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.
George Eliot

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.
George Eliot

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.
George Eliot

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.
George Eliot

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.
George Eliot

The intense happiness of our union is derived in a high degree from the perfect freedom with which we each follow and declare our own impressions.
George Eliot

The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.
George Eliot

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.
George Eliot

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.
George Eliot

The sons of Judah have to choose that God may again choose them. The divine principle of our race is action, choice, resolved memory.
George Eliot

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.
George Eliot

Consequences are unpitying.
George Eliot

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.
George Eliot

Death is the king of this world: ‘Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.
George Eliot

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
George Eliot

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
George Eliot

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.
George Eliot

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
George Eliot

Excessive literary production is a social offense.
George Eliot

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.
George Eliot

Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.
George Eliot

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.
George Eliot

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.
George Eliot

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
George Eliot

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.
George Eliot

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
George Eliot

He was like the cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
George Eliot

Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn’t do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.
George Eliot

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.
George Eliot

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.
George Eliot

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.
George Eliot

Consequences are unpitying.
George Eliot

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.
George Eliot

Death is the king of this world: ‘Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.
George Eliot

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
George Eliot

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.
George Eliot

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.
George Eliot

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.
George Eliot

Excessive literary production is a social offense.
George Eliot

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.
George Eliot

Falsehood is easy, truth so difficult.
George Eliot

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.
George Eliot

Genius at first is little more than a great capacity for receiving discipline.
George Eliot

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
George Eliot

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.
George Eliot

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
George Eliot

He was like the cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
George Eliot

Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn’t do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.
George Eliot

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.
George Eliot

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.
George Eliot

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.
George Eliot

I like not only to be loved, but to be told I am loved.
George Eliot

I like trying to get pregnant. I’m not so sure about childbirth.
George Eliot

I should like to know what is the proper function of women, if it is not to make reasons for husbands to stay at home, and still stronger reasons for bachelors to go out.
George Eliot

I’m not denyin’ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ‘em to match the men.
George Eliot

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
George Eliot

If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.
George Eliot

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.
George Eliot

In all private quarrels the duller nature is triumphant by reason of dullness.
George Eliot

In every parting there is an image of death.
George Eliot

In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.
George Eliot

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.
George Eliot

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?
George Eliot

It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us.
George Eliot

It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.
George Eliot

It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.
George Eliot

It is never too late to be what you might have been.
George Eliot

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.
George Eliot

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
George Eliot

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.
George Eliot

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.
George Eliot