How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"I should like to make life beautiful – I mean everybody's life. And then all this immense expanse of art, that seems somehow to lie outside life and make it no better for the world, pains one. It spoils my enjoyment of anything when I am made to think that most people are shut out from it." (2.22.50)
Dorothea explains to Will Ladislaw why she can't appreciate art the way he does, and her reason stems from her spiritual beliefs: she wants to "make life beautiful" for everyone. This is why she doesn't care for art – "most people are shut out from it," and it therefore doesn't do anything to make the world a better place.
Quote #5
"I have a belief of my own, and it comforts me. […] That by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil – widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower." (4.38.29-31)
Dorothea tells Will about the core of her spirituality: intentions matter more than outcomes, and good intentions are part of a universal fight against evil.
Quote #6
There is no general doctrine which is not capable of eating out our morality if unchecked by the deep-seated habit of direct fellow-feeling with individual fellow-men. (6.61.33)
Spirituality is privileged over religious doctrine in the world of Middlemarch for this reason: it's possible to follow "general doctrine," or the rules laid out by a particular religious sect, to the T, and yet still be a bad person. Doctrine only helps if it goes along with sympathy, or "direct fellow-feeling with individual fellow-men." According to this novel, if you follow all the rules, but don't care about other people, what's the point?