# Quote — George Eliot, Middlemarch

> That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency, has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind; and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.

- Author: [George Eliot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot.md)
- Book: [Middlemarch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Eliot#Middlemarch_(1871-72)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/that-element-of-tragedy

## More from this book

> It is true that an observer, under that softening influence of the fine arts which makes other people's hardships picturesque, might have been delighted with this homestead called Freeman's End.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/it-is-true.md)

> What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/what-loneliness-is-more.md)

> ‘I suppose a woman is never in love with any one she has always known— ever since she can remember; as a man often is. It is always some new fellow who strikes a girl.’

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-eliot/middlemarch/i-suppose-a-woman.md)