# Quote — George Eliot, Middlemarch

> There is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it. A new Theresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventual life, any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brother's burial: the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is forever gone. But we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas, some of which may present a far sadder sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know.

- 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/there-is-no-creature

## 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)