“ Feeling what it is to have spoiled one life may well make us long to save other lives from being spoiled. ”
George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876). copy citation
| Author | George Eliot |
|---|---|
| Source | Daniel Deronda |
| Topic | life feeling |
| Date | 1876 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7469/pg7469-images.html |
Context
“But if you submitted to that as men submit to maiming or life-long incurable disease?—and made the unalterable wrong a reason for more effort toward a good, that may do something to counterbalance the evil? One who has committed irremediable errors may be scourged by that consciousness into a higher course than is common. There are many examples. Feeling what it is to have spoiled one life may well make us long to save other lives from being spoiled."
"But you have not wronged any one, or spoiled their lives," said Gwendolen, hastily. "It is only others who have wronged you."
Deronda colored slightly, but said immediately—"I suppose our keen feeling for ourselves might end in giving us a keen feeling for others, if, when we are suffering acutely, we were to consider that others go through the same sharp experience.”
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