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b0102ff
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We know what a masquerade all development is, and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos.--In fact, the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities.
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George Eliot |
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495cef8
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The intensity of her religious disposition, the coercion it exercised over her life, was but one aspect of a nature altogether ardent, theoretic, and intellectually consequent: and with such a nature, struggling in the bonds of a narrow teaching, hemmed in by a social life which seemed nothing but a labyrinth of petty courses, a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither, the outcome was sure to strike others as at once exaggeration ..
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George Eliot |
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bc9431a
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Obligation may be stretched till it is no better than a brand of slavery stamped on us when we were too young to know its meaning.
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George Eliot |
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07f15a2
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What could two men, so different from each other, see in this "brown patch", as Mary called hereself? It was certainly not her plainness that attracted them (and let all plain young ladies be warned against the dangerous encouragement given them by Society to confinde in their want of beauty)" --
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George Eliot |
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b446d9e
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The Vicar's talk was not always inspiriting: he had escaped being a Pharisee, but he had not escaped that low estimate of possibilities which we rather hastily arrive at as an inference from our own failure.
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judgmental
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George Eliot |
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476058c
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Any one observing him would have seen a change in his complexion, in the adjustment of his facial muscles, in the vividness of his glance, which might have made them imagine that every molecule in his body had passed the message of a magic touch. And so it had.
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George Eliot |
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411c724
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Minds that have been unhinged from their old faith and love, have perhaps sought this Lethean influence of exile, in which the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories.
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George Eliot |
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cdd726d
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He did not shrug his shoulders; and for want of that muscular outlet he thought the more irritably of beautiful lips kissing holy skulls and other emptinesses ecclesiastically enshrined.
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George Eliot |
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66c09b3
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i am always bored." (gwendolen harleth)"
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George Eliot |
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7f080b8
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Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives is a still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden, but had their first little one among 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 makes the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common.
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George Eliot |
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54604bb
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If we had lost our own chief good, other people's good would remain, and that is worth trying for.
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service
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George Eliot |
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9666a9e
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Rosamund, taken hold of by an emotion stronger than her own--hurried along in a new movement which gave all things some new, awful, undefined aspect--could find no words, but involuntarily she put her lips to Dorothea's forehead which was very near her, and then for a minute the two women clasped each other as if they had been in a shipwreck.
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rosamund
shipwreck
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George Eliot |
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8df40a1
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He has got no good red blood in his body," said Sir James."
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George Eliot |
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ffe8240
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Gwendolen would not have liked to be an object of disgust to this husband whom she hated: she liked all disgust to be on her side.
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George Eliot |
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7df1cba
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There is no sorrow I have thought about more than that - to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail.
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George Eliot |
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996eced
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At last Godfrey turned his head towards her, and their eyes met, dwelling in that meeting without any movement on either side. That quiet mutual gaze of a trusting husband and wife is like the first moment of rest or refuge from a great weariness or a great danger--not to be interfered with by speech or action which would distract the sensations from the fresh enjoyment of repose.
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George Eliot |
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fed6596
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Where lies the power, there let the blame lie too." Nay, power is relative; you cannot fright The coming pest with border fortresses, Or catch your carp with subtle argument. All force is twain in one: cause is not cause Unless effect be there; and action's self Must needs contain a passive. So command Exists but with obedience."
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George Eliot |
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1cd924a
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I know no speck so troublesome as self. And who, if Mr. Casaubon had chosen to expound his discontents - his suspicions that he was not any longer adored without criticism - could have denied that they were founded on good reasons? On the contrary, there was a strong reason to be added, which he had not taken explicitly into account - namely that he was not unmixedly adorable. He suspected this, however, as he suspected other things, withou..
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George Eliot |
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170dda1
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But we all know the wag's definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.
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George Eliot |
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77441aa
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Women were expected to have weak opinions; but the great safeguard of society and of domestic life was, that opinions were not acted on. Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.
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George Eliot |
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c058523
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She could make dream-worlds of her own - but no dream-world would satisfy her now. She wanted some explanation of this hard, real life: the unhappy-looking father seated at the dull breakfast-table; the childish bewildered mother; the little sordid tasks that filled the hours, or the more oppressive emptiness of weary, joyless leisure; the need of some tender, demonstrative love; the cruel sense that Tom didn't mind what she thought or felt..
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George Eliot |
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b54f8de
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Yes, but not my style of woman: I like a woman who lays herself out a little more to please us. There should be a little filigree about a woman--something of the coquette. A man likes a sort of challenge. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better.
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George Eliot |
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8aa4109
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That quiet mutual gaze of a trusting husband and wife is like the first moment of rest or refuge from a great weariness or a great danger - not to be interfered with by speech or action which would distract the sensations from the fresh enjoyment of repose.
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George Eliot |
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a84c4e7
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You won't be giving me away, father,' she had said before they went to church; 'you'll only be taking Aaron to be a son to you.
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George Eliot |
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a7e0d4e
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when Maggie became conscious that she was the person he sought, she felt, in spite of all the thought that had gone before, a glowing gladness at heart. Her eyes and cheeks were still brightened with her childlike enthusiasm in the dance; her whole frame was set to joy and tenderness; even the coming pain could not seem bitter -- she was ready to welcome it as a part of life, for life at this moment seemed a keen vibrating consciousness poi..
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George Eliot |
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2a512d6
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By a peculiar thermometric adjustment, when a woman's talent is at zero, journalistic approbation is at the boiling pitch; when she attains mediocrity, it is already at no more than summer heat; and if ever she reaches excellence, critical enthusiasm drops to the freezing point.
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George Eliot |
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c73fca4
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It is just that I don't know how I could live without the hope of her. It would be like learning to live with wooden legs.
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hope
wooden-legs
hopeless
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George Eliot |
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450c603
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soul of man, when it gets fairly rotten, will bear you all sorts of poisonous toad-stools, and no eye can see whence came the seed thereof.
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George Eliot |
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04069c5
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She says, he is a great soul.--A great bladder for dried peas to rattle in!" said Mrs. Cadwallader."
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George Eliot |
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3490d88
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I should be glad to see a good change in anybody, Mr. Godfrey.' she answered, with the slightest discernible difference of tone, 'but it 'ud be better if no change was wanted.
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George Eliot |
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47c6cf0
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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 us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts--not to hurt others."
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George Eliot |
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30df9f7
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That's the way with 'em all: it's as if they thought the world 'ud be new-made because they're to be married.
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George Eliot |
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4ae2637
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He sat watching what went forward with the quiet outward glance of healthy old age.
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maturity
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George Eliot |
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da22be4
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Our caresses, our tender words, our still rapture under the influence of autumn sunsets, or pillared vistas, or calm majestic statues, or Beethoven symphonies, all bring with them the consciousness that they are mere waves and ripples in an unfathomable ocean of love and beauty; our emotion in its keenest moment passes from expression to silence, our love at its highest flood rushes beyond its object, and loses itself in the sense of divine..
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George Eliot |
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ab7a9a6
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Esther always avoided asking questions of Lydley, who found an answer as she found a key, by pouring out a pocketful of miscellanies.
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George Eliot |
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6ce6ad8
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I've always mistrusted that sort o' learning as leaves folks foolish and unreasonable about business.
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practicality
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George Eliot |
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1dbab44
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He was unique to her among men because he's impressed her as being not her admirer her superior. In some mysterious way he was becoming a part of her conscience as one woman who's nature is an object of reverential belief may become a new conscience to a man.
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men
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George Eliot |
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490a0a2
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Aye, aye, that's the way wi' thee: thee allays makes a peck o' thy own words out o' a pint o' the Bible's
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exposition
preaching
scripture
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George Eliot |
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8c64af4
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John considered a young master as the natural enemy of an old servant, and young people in general as a poor contrivance for carrying on the world.
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submission
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George Eliot |
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6b4f55f
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In my opinion," said Lydgate, "legal training only makes a man more incompetent in questions that require knowledge of another kind."
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George Eliot |
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aa4fb81
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Doubtless a great anguish may do the work of years, and we may come out from that baptism of fire with a soul full of new awe and new pity.
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George Eliot |
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fb4b6a2
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mysterious money had stood to him as the symbol of earthly good, and the immediate object of toil. He had seemed to love it little in the years when every penny had its purpose for him; for he loved the purpose then. But now, when all purpose was gone, that habit of looking towards the money and grasping it with a sense of fulfilled effort made a loam that was deep enough for the seeds of desire.
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money
idolatry
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George Eliot |
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bef2de2
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Under the vague dullness of the gray hours, dissatisfaction seeks a definite object and finds it in the privation of an untried good.
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George Eliot |
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9386c93
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To most mortals there is a stupidity which is unendurable and a stupidity which is altogether acceptable -- else, indeed, what would become of social bonds?
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George Eliot |