Consequences are unpitying. Our deeds carry their terrible consequences, quite apart from any fluctuations that went before—consequences that are hardly ever confined to ourselves. And it is best to fix our minds on that certainty, instead of considering what may be the elements of excuse for us.

Eliot stresses a moral realism central to her fiction: actions generate effects that do not soften in response to our intentions, moods, or self-justifications. “Consequences are unpitying” frames causality as ethically indifferent—what matters is what our deeds set in motion, not the excuses we later assemble. The passage also widens responsibility beyond the individual, insisting that harm and benefit ripple outward into other lives. By urging us to “fix our minds” on this certainty, Eliot critiques sentimental moral accounting and promotes a sober, socially attentive conscience: ethical maturity lies in anticipating and owning outcomes rather than pleading mitigating circumstances after the fact.