Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
Her own misery filled her heart—there was no room in it for other people's sorrow.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A person consumed by their own pain may struggle to empathize with the suffering of others.
This quote illustrates how personal suffering can create a barrier to understanding and connecting with the pain of others. When an individual is overwhelmed by their own misfortunes, it can be difficult for them to extend compassion or support to those around them, highlighting the nature of human emotions and the sometimes isolating experience of grief and hardship.
Themes
MiseryEmpathySorrowPainConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about mental health, this quote can emphasize the importance of self-care before helping others.
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.
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 – 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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