We cannot reform our forefathers.

George Eliot

Adam Bede

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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.

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

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Abraham Lincoln

Read Lincoln's Lost Speech at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Voting Political theory
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Source
Lost Speech
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1856 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Lost Speech." Anti-Nebraska Bloomington Convention, First Republican State Convention of Illinois. 29 May 1856, Major's Hall, Bloomington, IL, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Speech at Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832-1858, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote about Progress

The advancement of the arts from year to year taxes our credulity, and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.

Henry L. Ellsworth

More information about this quote
Topic
Technological progress Progress

Author

Henry L. Ellsworth
Language
English
Time
1843 1840s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Ellsworth, Henry L. "Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year." U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1843.

Another quote from 1859

An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer.

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty

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More information about this quote
Topic
Limits on freedom of speech Freedom of speech and expression

Author

John Stuart Mill
Source
On Liberty
Medium
Essay
Genre
Philosophical literature Political literature
Language
English
Time
1859 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: J.W. Parker and Son, 1859, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Mill, John Stuart. "On Liberty." On Liberty, Utilitarianism and Other Essays, edited by Mark Philp and Frederick Rosen. Oxford University Press, 2015, ch. 3.

Another quote of the following type Proverbs, aphorisms and adages

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Beyond Good and Evil

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More information about this quote
Topic
Dangerous ideas Power of ideas

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche
Source
Beyond Good and Evil
Genre
Philosophical literature
Statement Type
Proverbs, aphorisms and adages
Language
German
Time
1886 1880s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft [Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future]. Leipzig: C. G. Naumann, 1886, ch. 4, no. 146.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 2003, ch. 4, no. 146.