Date: 1860

"At present, in relation to this demand that he should learn Latin declensions and conjugations, Tom was in a state of as blank unimaginativeness concerning the cause and tendency of his sufferings, as if he had been an innocent shrewmouse imprisoned in the split trunk of an ash tree in order to ...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"It is doubtless almost incredible to instructed minds of the present day that a boy of twelve, not belonging strictly to 'the masses' who are now understood to have the monopoly of mental darkness, should have had no distinct idea how there came to be such a thing as Latin on this earth: yet so ...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"As for Tom's school course, it went on with mill-like monotony, his mind continuing to move with a slow, half-stifled pulse in a medium of uninteresting or unintelligible ideas."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"The pride and obstinacy of millers and other insignificant people, whom you pass unnoticingly on the road every day, have their tragedy too, but it is of that unwept, hidden sort, that goes on from generation to generation and leaves no record - such tragedy, perhaps, as lies in the conflicts of...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"The stricken man lay for some time with his eyes fixed on the letter, as if he were trying to knit up his thoughts by its help."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"She kissed him, then seated herself again, and took another table cloth on her lap, unfolding it a little way to look at the pattern, while the children stood by in mute wretchedness - their minds quite filled for the moment with the words 'beggars' and 'workhouse.'"

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"Among the threads of the past which the stricken man had gathered up, he had omitted the bill of sale: the flash of memory had only lit up prominent ideas, and he sank into forgetfulness again with half his humiliation unlearned."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"It wasn't my business, and I didn't interfere: but it is as I thought it would be - you've had a sort of learning that's all very well for a young fellow like our Mr Stephen Guest, who'll have nothing to do but sign cheques all his life, and may as well have Latin inside his head as any other so...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"A girl of no startling appearance, and who will never be a Sappho or a Madame Roland or anything else that the world takes wide note of, may still hold forces within her as the living plant-seed does, which will make a way for themselves, often in a shattering, violent manner."

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Date: 1860

"The days passed, and Mr Tulliver showed, at least to the eyes of the medical man, stronger and stronger symptoms of a gradual return to his normal condition: the paralytic obstruction was, little by little, losing its tenacity, and the mind was rising from under it with fitful struggles, like a ...

— Eliot, George (1819-1880)