... that modern sect of Flagellants who make a ritual of lashing — not themselves but — all their neighbours. - George Eliot

Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.

After all, people may really have in them some vocation which is not quite plain to themselves, may they not? They may seem idle and weak because they are growing. We should be very patient with each other, I think.

The law was sacred. Yes, but rebellion might be sacred too. It flashed upon her mind that the problem before her was essentially the same as that which had lain before Savonarola—the problem where the sacredness of obedience ended, and where the sacredness of rebellion began.