We cannot reform our forefathers.

George Eliot

Adam Bede

Buy Adam Bede at Amazon Buy Adam Bede at Amazon
Read Adam Bede at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Morality of the past The past Progress

Author

George Eliot

Source

Adam Bede

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

Language

English

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United Kingdom Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Edinburgh/London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1859, ch. 53.

Current Citation

Eliot, George. Adam Bede, edited by Carol A. Martin. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 53.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by George Eliot about morality of the past: “We cannot reform our forefathers.”
Download
A quote by George Eliot about morality of the past: “We cannot reform our forefathers.”
Download
A quote by George Eliot about morality of the past: “We cannot reform our forefathers.”
Download

Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote from the 1850s

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the end of Being and ideal Grace.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

More information about this quote
Topic
Being in love Love

Author

Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Source
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Medium
Sonnet Poem
Statement Type
Profession of love Question
Language
English
Time
1850 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Sonnets from the Portuguese. London: Chapman and Hall, 1850, sonnet 43.

Current Citation

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "Sonnets from the Portuguese." Aurora Leigh and Other Poems, edited by John Robert Glorney Bolton and Julia Bolton Holloway. Penguin Classics, 1996, sonnet 43.

Another quote about Progress

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

More information about this quote
Topic
Activism Political progress Social progress Progress
Speaker
Frederick Douglass
Source
West India Emancipation
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
English
Time
1857 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Douglass, Frederick. "West India Emancipation." 3 Aug. 1857, Canandaigua, NY, USA.

Another quote from 1859

I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands.

Abraham Lincoln

More information about this quote
Topic
Equality
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1859 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio. 17 Sept. 1859, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, September 17, 1859." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote of the following type Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

Love your Neighbor; yet don't pull down your Hedge.

Poor Richard (Benjamin Franklin)

Buy Poor Richard's Almanack at Amazon Buy Poor Richard's Almanack at Amazon
Read this proverb at the National Archives website
More information about this quote
Topic
Maintaining healthy boundaries Being a good neighbor Neighbors

Author

Poor Richard (Benjamin Franklin)
Source
Poor Richard's Almanack
Medium
Almanac
Statement Type
Proverbs, aphorisms and adages Advice
Language
English
Time
1754 1750s 18th century
Era
Colonial America
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Franklin, Benjamin [published as Richard Saunders]. Poor Richard Improved. Philadelphia, 1754.

Current Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "Poor Richard Improved." Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay. Library of America, 2005.