Finished Adam Bede

For me it seems it’s the same with love and happiness as with sorrow — the more we know of it the better can feel what other people’s lives are or might be, and so we shall only be more tender to ’em, and wishful to help ’em. The more knowledge a man has, the better he’ll do’s work; and feeling’s a sort o’ knowledge. (482)

The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food–it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on. (458)