skopia
QuotesBooksArtAlbumsSongsMoviesTimePlace
← Back to quotes

We cannot reform our forefathers. — George Eliot

Novel

We cannot reform our forefathers.

George Eliot
Adam Bede · 1859
★ 3.9
Other tags relating to this quote
Topic
Morality of the pastThe pastProgress
Statement type
Proverbs, aphorisms and adages
Medium
Novel
Time
1859
Person
George Eliot
Provenance
Current citation
Eliot, George. Adam Bede, edited by Carol A. Martin. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 53.
Original citation
Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Edinburgh/London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1859, ch. 53.

Related quotes

Other quotes that share a subject, a time, or a voice with this one.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana
The Life of Reason · 1905
Another quote aboutTopic·The past

For the one thing even God cannot do is change the past.

Agathon
Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
Another quote aboutTopic·The past

That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.

Neil Armstrong
1969
Another quote aboutTopic·Progress

I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one... But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.

Theodore Parker
1853
Another quote aboutTopic·Progress

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

George Eliot
Felix Holt, the Radical · 1866
Another quote byPerson·George Eliot

Other media

Works in other forms that share a subject with this one.

Other media onSubject·Progress
Book · 1962
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas Kuhn
Book · 1957
The Cairo Trilogy
Naguib Mahfouz
Sourced and curated by hand · © 2026·Terms·Privacy
Every quote sourced, dated, and authenticated.