“…he was finally wrought upon by the consideration of the peculiar responsibility attached to his office, of avoiding the appearance of evil – and that ‘appearance’ is always dependent on the average quality of surrounding minds. Where those minds are low and gross, the area of that ‘appearance’ is proportionately widened.”

“Even on the supposition that required the utmost stretch of belief – namely, that none of the things said about Miss Tulliver were true; still, since they had been said about her, they had cast an odor around her which must cause her to be shrunk from by every woman who had to take care of her own reputation – and of course society. To have taken Maggie by the hand and said, ‘I will not believe unproved evil of you; my lips shall not utter it, my ears shall be closed against it. I, too, am an erring mortal, liable to stumble, apt to come short of my most earnest efforts. Let us help each other to stand and walk without more falling’ – to have done this would have demanded courage, deep pity, self-knowledge, generous trust – would have demanded a mind that tasted no piquancy in evil-speaking, that felt no self-exaltation in condemning, that cheated itself with no large words into the belief that life can have any moral end, any high religion, which excludes the striving after perfect truth, justice, and love towards the individual men and women who come across our own path.”

“The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.”

- all from The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)