5 quotations linked to Daniel Deronda by or associated with George Eliot, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Choice, history, growth, sympathy, hope, identity, community, knowledge and political or spiritual belonging.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.”
The narrator uses irony to show how not knowing enough can make almost anything seem plausible, widening speculation rather than understanding.
Source note: Daniel Deronda; narrator’s ironic observation while Gwendolen speculates about Grandcourt, represented from Project Gutenberg #7469.
“the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.”
The sentence connects collective growth with deliberate choice, but its meaning in the novel is political and historical rather than a generic slogan about individual self-improvement.
Source note: Daniel Deronda; spoken by Mordecai during his argument about Jewish national renewal, action, memory and a future Judea. The specific speaker and political-religious context are essential.
“every unostentatious word or smile that shows a heart awake to others”
The phrase values small, unshowy signs of attention because they reveal active awareness of other people rather than performative benevolence.
Source note: Daniel Deronda; narrator-level phrase in a passage about unnoticed social influence and responsiveness to others.
“If we look back to the history of efforts which have made great changes, it is astonishing how many of them seemed hopeless to those who looked on in the beginning.”
Deronda argues that later historical success can obscure how improbable reform movements looked at their beginning, making apparent hopelessness a poor measure of eventual consequence.
Source note: Daniel Deronda; Deronda speaks in a discussion of political and national efforts, with historical reform as the immediate context.
“Everything in the sky and under the sky looked so pure and beautiful that the weariness and trouble and folly seemed only a small part of what is, and I became more patient and hopeful.”
A change in attention to the larger natural scene does not erase trouble, but it reduces its apparent totality and makes patience and hope possible again.
Source note: Daniel Deronda; spoken by Mirah while describing an experience of the natural world. The record keeps her fictional voice and immediate emotional context visible.