Comes and goes Quote by George Eliot
““Nay, are there many situations more sublimely tragic than the struggle of the soul with the demand to renounce a work which has been all the significance of its life--a significance which is to vanish as the waters which come and go where no man has need of them?””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Middlemarch, 1871
The soul suffers when forced to abandon a lifelong purpose, even if that purpose seems fleeting.
In simple terms: Giving up a life’s work is tragic.
Key Takeaway
Honor your true calling.
Themes
purpose
sacrifice
existential conflict
Mood
melancholic
reflective
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- career change
- artistic pursuit
- spiritual crisis
- ethical dilemma
Key Concepts
identity
meaning
transience
Questions to Reflect On
- What would you keep if you could not abandon it?
- Is renunciation ever justified?
A Different Perspective
May romanticize sacrifice without practical solutions.
![“[W]e must learn to accommodate ourselves to the discovery that some of those cunningly-fashioned instruments called human souls have only a very limited range of music, and will not vibrate in the least under a touch that fills others with tremulous rapture or quivering agony.” quote by George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/9be/george-eliot-84_agony_w-e-must-learn-to-accommodate-ourselves_12409.jpg)
