Leo Tolstoy, in a letter to A. A. Tolstaya (1859).
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If you were in Russia, I would send you Eliot's "Scenes of Clerical Life," but now I only ask you to read it, especially "Janet's Repentance." Fortunate are the people who, like the English, imbibe Christian teachings with their mother's milk, and in such an elevated, purified form, as Evangelical Protestantism. Here is a moral as well as a religious book, but one which I liked very much and which made a powerful impression on me...

— Leo Tolstoy

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "If you were in Russia, I would send you Eliot's "Scenes of Clerical Life," but now I only ask you to read it, especially "Janet's Repentance." Fortunate are the people who, like the English, imbibe Christian teachings with their mother's milk, and in such an elevated, purified form, as Evangelical Protestantism. Here is a moral as well as a religious book, but one which I liked very much and which made a powerful impression on me..." in the context of "Leo Tolstoy, in a letter to A. A. Tolstaya (1859)." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "George Eliot" (Quotes about Eliot) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
George Eliot

About George Eliot

George Eliot (born Mary Ann Evans; 22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880) was an English novelist and poet. Despite the strong social customs of her times against such arrangements, she lived unmarried with fellow writer George Henry Lewesβ€Žβ€Ž for over 20 years.