It is never too late to be what you might have been.

Often attributed to George Eliot, this aphorism expresses a broadly humanist faith in moral and personal development: identity is not fixed, and the future can remain open even after missed chances. Its appeal lies in countering regret and social determinism with the idea of late-blooming agency—one can still align one’s life more closely with one’s values, talents, or aspirations. Read generously, it is less a promise of unlimited reinvention than an encouragement to act in the present rather than remain trapped by earlier choices. The line functions as a modern maxim of self-cultivation, even if its authority as an Eliot quotation is doubtful.