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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 Eliot
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Interpretation

What this quote means

We remain connected to those who have passed until we forget them, and our emotions can affect their memory.

This quote by George Eliot emphasizes the enduring emotional connection we have with those who have died. Their memory continues to influence us, and the love and sorrow we feel reflect our ongoing bond with them. As long as we remember and honor them, they are never truly gone from our lives, and our feelings of loss reveal the depth of our relationships.

Themes

MemoryLossGriefLoveConnectionRemembrance

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be shared at a memorial service to express the ongoing connection with loved ones who have passed away.

More from George Eliot

Go forward with joyful confidence.
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You 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.
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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 – that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
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Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
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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.
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Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.
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