- "...the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories."-- Eliot in chapter 1, describing Silas’s withdrawal from society.
- "...like the weaving and satisfaction of hunger, subsisting quite aloof from the life of belief and love from which he had been cut off."-- Eliot in chapter 1, describing Silas’s obsession with his gold.
- "The yoke a man creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest nature; and the good-humoured, affectionate-hearted Godfrey Cass, was fast becoming a bitter man, visited by cruel wishes, that seemed to enter and depart, and enter again, like demons who had found in him a ready-garnished home."-- Eliot in chapter 3, describing Godfrey’s dilemma
- "This strangely novel situation of opening his trouble to his Raveloe neighbors, of sitting in the warmth of a hearth not his own, and feeling the presence of faces and voices which were his nearest promise of help, had doubtless its influence on Marner, in spite of his passionate preoccupation with his loss. Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud."-- Eliot in chapter 7, admitting that Silas is being forced to open himself up in order to ask for help.
- "The loom was there, and the weaving, and the growing pattern in the cloth; but the bright treasure in the hole under his feet was gone; the prospect of handling and counting it was gone: the evening had no phantasm of delight to still the poor soul’s craving."-- Eliot in chapter 10, detailing Silas’s mourning over the robbery of his gold.
- "This journey on New Year’s Eve was a premeditated act of vengeance which she had kept in her heart ever since Godfrey, in a fit of passion, had told her he would sooner die than acknowledge her as his wife."-- Eliot in chapter 12, describing Molly’s decision to confront Godfrey and his family about their marriage.
- "...but instead of the hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers encountered soft warm curls."-- Eliot in chapter 12, detailing Silas’s discovery of Eppie.
- "Godfrey felt a great throb: there was one terror in his mind at that moment: it was, that the woman might not be dead. That was an evil terror."-- Eliot in chapter 13, showing how fearful Godfrey is that his dirty secret will come to light.
- "The money’s gone I don’t know where, and this is come from I don’t know where."-- Silas in chapter 14, explaining the arrival of Eppie.
- "As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness."-- Eliot in chapter 14, explaining Silas’s transformation following the arrival of Eppie.
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