Ifs Quotes by George Eliot

What if my words Were meant for deeds.

— George Eliot

If you are to rule men, you must rule them through their own ideas.

— George Eliot

It's no use filling your pocket with money if you have got a hole in the corner.

— George Eliot

If you are not proud of your cellar, there is no thrill of satisfaction in seeing your guest hold up his wineglass…

— George Eliot

Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the speech they know to be useless-nay, the speech they…

— George Eliot

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.

— George Eliot

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

— George Eliot

There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration.

— George Eliot

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music.

— George Eliot

Life would be no better than candlelight tinsel and daylight rubbish if our spirits were not touched by what has been.

— George Eliot

You know nothing about Hope, that immortal, delicious maiden forever courted forever propitious, whom fools have called deceitful, as if it were…

— George Eliot

If I could only fancy myself clever, it would be better, but to be a failure of Nature and to know it…

— George Eliot

He was at a starting point which makes many a man's career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen…

— George Eliot

A girl of eighteen imagines the feelings behind the face that has moved her with its sympathetic youth as easily as primitive…

— George Eliot

When we are young we think our troubles a mighty business - that the world is spread out expressly as a stage…

— George Eliot

I have no courage to write much unless I am written to. I soon begin to think that there are plenty of…

— George Eliot

There is nothing I should care more to do, if it were possible, than to rouse the imagination of men and women…

— George Eliot

When you've been used to doing things, and they've been taken away from you, it's as if your hands had been cut…

— George Eliot

If people will be censors, let them weigh their words. I mean that the words were unfair by that disproportionateness of the…

— George Eliot

Poor dog! I've a strange feeling about the dumb things as if they wanted to speak, and it was a trouble to…

— George Eliot

Ah! but the moods lie in his nature, my boy, just as much as his reflections did, and more. A man can…

— George Eliot

I might mention all the divine charms of a bright spring day, but if you had never in your life utterly forgotten…

— George Eliot

Love is such a simple thing when we have only one-and-twenty summers and a sweet girl of seventeen trembles under our glance,…

— George Eliot

Fancy what a game of chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning;…

— George Eliot

One has to spend so many years in learning how to be happy. I am just beginning to make some progress in…

— George Eliot

I shall be so glad if you will tell me what to read. I have been looking into all the books in…

— George Eliot

It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a man's death hallows him anew to us; as…

— George Eliot

“In Rome it seems as if there were so many things which are more wanted in the world than pictures.”

— George Eliot

If a woman's young and pretty, I think you can see her good looks all the better for her being plainly dressed.

— George Eliot

I couldn't live in peace if I put the shadow of a willful sin between myself and God.

— George Eliot

We are overhasty to speak as if God did not manifest himself by our silent feeling, and make his love felt through…

— George Eliot

Well, well, my boy, if good luck knocks at your door, don't you put your head out at window and tell it…

— George Eliot

We have all our secret sins; and if we knew ourselves we should not judge each other harshly.

— George Eliot

If you could make a pudding wi' thinking o' the batter, it 'ud be easy getting dinner.

— George Eliot

If troubles were put up to market, I'd sooner buy old than new. It's something to have seen the worst.

— George Eliot

Perhaps nothing ud be a lesson to us if it didn't come too late. It's well we should feel as life's a…

— George Eliot

To superficial observers his chin had too vanishing an aspect, looking as if it were being gradually reabsorbed. And it did indeed…

— George Eliot

People are so ridiculous with their illusions, carrying their fool's caps unawares, thinking their own lies opaque while everybody else's are transparent,…

— George Eliot

I've had my say out, and I shall be the' easier for't all my life. There's no pleasure i' living, if you're…

— George Eliot

A foreman, if he's got a conscience, and delights in his work, will do his business as well as if he was…

— George Eliot