George Eliot Quotes

A word that has been said may be unsaid-it is but air. But when a deed is done, it cannot be undone, nor can our thoughts reach out to all the mischiefs that may follow.

Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds.

Judgement is given to men that they may use it. Because it may be used erroneously, are men to be told that they ought not to use it at all?

The only things in which we can be said to have any property are our actions. Our thoughts may be bad, yet produce no poison; they may be good, yet produce no fruit. Our riches may be taken away by misfortune, our reputation by malice, our spirits by calamity, our health by disease, our friends by death. But our actions must follow us beyond the grave; with respect to them alone, we cannot say that we shall carry nothing with us when we die, neither that we shall go naked out of the world.

The consequences of our actions take hold of us, quite indifferent to our claim that meanwhile we have 'improved.

I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that I will fall heir.

Thoughts can be revised. Deeds cannot.

A human being fashions his consequences as surely as he fashions his goods or his dwelling. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences.

Every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws. Your choice determines the consequences. Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.

Coercion may prevent many transgressions; but it robs even actions which are legal of a part of their beauty. Freedom may lead to many transgressions, but it lends even to vices a less ignoble form.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.

I believe everybody is responsible for what they do themselves.

Everyone has to make their own decisions. I still believe in that. You just have to be able to accept the consequences without complaining.

The man who sows wrong thoughts and deeds and prays that God will bless him is in the position of a farmer who, having sown tares, asks God to bring forth for him a harvest of wheat.

I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent.

Every action has a consequence, so always try to be good.

Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, our fatal shadows that walk by us still.

Man is fully responsible for his nature and his choices.

I'm really only responsible for my own actions.

You can say the opposite of something you've said but you can't do the opposite of something you've done.

As contemporary history reminds us we are human to the extent that we are able to chose between alternatives.

When people stop believing they are free agents, they stop seeing themselves as blameworthy for their actions.

We must all live so that our children do not have to pay for our deeds.