“It is good to be unselfish and generous; but don't carry that too far. It will not do to give yourself to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow-trade; you must know where to find yourself.”

— George Eliot, book Daniel Deronda

This has been paraphrased as: "Be courteous, be obliging, but don't give yourself over to be melted down for the benefit of the tallow trade."
Daniel Deronda (1876)

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English novelist, journalist and translator 1819–1880

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