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We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.
George Eliot
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Interpretation

What this quote means

To maintain sanity, we must put in effort and share a common understanding of terms.

This quote emphasizes the importance of collective understanding and the effort required to stay mentally balanced in a world filled with varied perspectives. George Eliot suggests that in order to preserve our mental health, we need to actively engage with one another and agree on how we label and interpret the world around us, highlighting the role of language in our interactions and mental well-being.

Themes

SanityUnderstandingEffortLanguagePerception

In practice

Example use cases

During a mental health workshop, one could reference this quote to highlight the shared language needed for discussing mental well-being.

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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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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