Only one tells the quality of their minds when they try to talk well.
 George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872). copy citation

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Author George Eliot
Source Middlemarch
Topic quality mind
Date 1872
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/145/145-h/145-h.htm

Context

“She pinched Celia’s chin, being in the mood now to think her very winning and lovely—fit hereafter to be an eternal cherub, and if it were not doctrinally wrong to say so, hardly more in need of salvation than a squirrel. “Of course people need not be always talking well. Only one tells the quality of their minds when they try to talk well.” “You mean that Sir James tries and fails.” “I was speaking generally. Why do you catechise me about Sir James? It is not the object of his life to please me.” “Now, Dodo, can you really believe that?”” source