George Eliot; a Critical Study of Her Life, Writings and Philosophy

“His faith wavered, but not his speech: it is the lot of every man who has to speak for the satisfaction of the crowd, that he must often speak in virtue of yesterday's faith, hoping it will come back to-morrow.””

— George Willis Cooke

“Romola had had contact with no mind that could stir the larger possibilities of her nature; they lay folded and crushed like embryonic wings, making no element in her consciousness beyond an occasional vague uneasiness.””

— George Willis Cooke

“The great river-courses which have shaped the lives of men have hardly changed; and those other streams, the life-currents that ebb and flow in human hearts, pulsate to the same great needs, the same great loves and terrors.””

— George Willis Cooke

“We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of good or evil which gradually determines character.””

— George Willis Cooke

“You come as opportunely as cheese on macaroni.””

— George Willis Cooke

“It is but once that we can know our worst sorrows.””

— George Willis Cooke

“Ah, Iddio non paga il Sabatol (‘God does not pay on a Saturday’)”

— George Willis Cooke

“And in this way he had learned to distrust men without bitterness; looking on life mainly as a game of skill, but not dead to traditions of heroism and clean-handed honour.””

— George Willis Cooke

“There has been no great people without processions, and the man who thinks himself too wise to be moved by them to anything but contempt, is like the puddle that was proud of standing alone while the river rushed by.””

— George Willis Cooke