Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Desiring excessive things can lead to a sense of limitation instead of fulfillment.
George Eliot's quote suggests that when individuals focus too much on their personal desires and wishes, it can create a mindset where they feel restricted and exclusive. Instead of appreciating what they have, they become dissatisfied, turning their aspirations into constraints that hinder their happiness and fulfillment.
Themes
DesireLimitationHappinessFulfillmentContentment
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about appreciating what you have instead of constantly wanting more.
More from George Eliot
All quotes βYou must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
George EliotRead
She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel β that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
George EliotRead
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
George EliotRead
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