Go forward with joyful confidence.
That farewell kiss which resembles greeting, that last glance of love which becomes the sharpest pang of sorrow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the bittersweet nature of parting, where a goodbye can feel like a warm greeting yet also evokes profound sadness.
George Eliot's quote encapsulates the dual emotions present in farewells, illustrating how moments of parting can trigger feelings of love and connection, even as they also bring about our deepest sorrows. The farewell kiss symbolizes both affection and loss, highlighting how love remains entwined with pain. It reminds us that goodbyes can hold the essence of both joy and sorrow, leading to a poignant emotional experience that resonates deeply within us.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a eulogy, one might reflect on the beauty and pain of saying goodbye with this quote.
More from George Eliot
All quotes →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.
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.
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
In the very depths of Hell, do not demons love one another?
Only when you are lost can love find itself in you without losing its way.
What's to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty; Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth's a stuff will not endure.
Is not the most erotic part of the body wherever the clothing affords a glimpse?
The world is filled with love-play, from animal lust to sublime compassion.
Oh, I don’t mean you’re handsome, not the way people think of handsome. Your face seems kind. But your eyes - they’re beautiful. They’re wild, crazy, like some animal peering out of a forest on fire.