“Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.”

Mary Ann Evans, a Victorian English novelist and critic, wrote under the male pseudonym George Eliot. She is best known for her psychologically nuanced novels exploring human complexity, particularly *Middlemarch* and *Adam Bede*. Her work remains influential for its realistic portrayal of rural and social life.