For in the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little. The story of their coming to be shapen after the average and fit to be packed by the gross, is hardly ever told even in their consciousness; for perhaps their ardour in generous unpaid toil cooled as imperceptibly as the ardour of other youthful loves, till one day their earlier self walked like a ghost in its old home and made the new furniture ghastly. Nothing in the world more subtle than the process of their gradual change! In the beginning they inhaled it unknowingly: you and I may have sent some of our breath towards infecting them, when we uttered our conforming falsities or drew our silly conclusions: or perhaps it came with the vibrations from a woman's glance. George Eliot
About This Quote

The idea of the passage of time is central to this poem. It’s important to note that it is not just an idea, but something that happened to people. The poet sees the “passage of time” as a process of change and decay, but also as something that can be manipulated. The speaker of the poem sees his own body changing through time, but also sees his body as something that he can manipulate.

Source: Middlemarch

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More Quotes By George Eliot
  1. I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and...
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