Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton famous quotes
Last updated: Jul 22, 2024
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Genius is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
There are two lives to each of us, the life of our actions, and the life of our minds and hearts. History reveals men's deeds and their outward characters, but not themselves. There is a secret self that has its own life, unpenetrated and unguessed.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
We love the beautiful and serene, but we have a feeling as deep as love for the terrible and dark.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Of all the virtues necessary to the completion of the perfect man, there is none to be more delicately implied and less ostentatiously vaunted than that of exquisite feeling or universal benevolence.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
To judge human character rightly, a man may sometimes have very small experience, provided he has a very large heart.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
If a good face is a letter of recommendation, a good heart is a letter of credit.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
A mind once cultivated will not lie fallow for half an hour.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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It is destiny phrase of the weak human heart! 'It is destiny' dark apology for every error! The strong and virtuous admit no destiny
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Reading without purpose is sauntering not exercise.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Two lives that once part are as ships that divide.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Art does not imitate nature, but founds itself on the study of nature, takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz: The mind and soul of man.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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But never yet the dog our country fed, Betrayed the kindness or forgot the bread.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labor.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Punctuality is a virtue, If you don't mind being lonely.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The worst part of an eminent man's conversation is, nine times out of ten, to be found in that part by which he means to be clever.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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The man who succeeds above his fellows is the one who early in life, clearly discerns his object, and towards that object habitually directs his powers. Even genius itself is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose. Every man who observes vigilantly and resolves steadfastly grows unconsciously into genius.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Trees that, like the poplar, lift upward all their boughs, give no shade and no shelter, whatever their height. Trees the most lovingly shelter and shade us, when, like the willow, the higher soar their summits, the lower drop their boughs.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Art is the effort of man to express the ideas which nature suggests to him of a power above nature, whether that power be within the recesses of his own being, or in the Great First Cause of which nature, like himself, is but the effect.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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As the excitement of the game increases, prudence is sure to diminish.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Writers are the main landmarks of the past.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
It is not by the gray of the hair that one knows the age of the heart.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Revolutions are not made with rosewater.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Of all the weaknesses little men rail against, there is none that they are more apt to ridicule than the tendency to believe. And of all the signs of a corrupt heart and a feeble head, the tendency of incredulity is the surest. Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
If thou be industrious to procure wealth, be generous in the disposal of it. Man never is so happy as when he giveth happiness unto another.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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I would rather have five energetic and competent enemies than one fool friend.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
More is got from one book on which the thought settles for a definite end in knowledge, than from libraries skimmed over by a wandering eye.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
There is no past, as long as books shall live. Books make the past our heritage and our home.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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We tell our triumphs to the crowds, but our own hearts are the sole confidants of our sorrows.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
He who esteems trifles for themselves is a trifler; he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Archaeology is not only the hand maid of history, it is also the conservator of art.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
When a man is not amused, he feels an involuntary contempt for those who are.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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The first essential to success in the art you practice is respect for the art itself.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The poet in prose or verse - the creator - can only stamp his images forcibly on the page in proportion as he has forcibly felt, ardently nursed, and long brooded over them.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth! The passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker! They are more easily excited, they are more violent and apparent; but they have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power than in maturer life.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The more the merely human part of the poet remains a mystery, the more willing is the reverence given to his divine mission.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Art itself is essentially ethical; because every true work of art must have a beauty or grandeur of some kind, and beauty and grandeur cannot be comprehended by the beholder except through the moral sentiment. The eye is only a witness; it is not a judge. The mind judges what the eye reports to it; therefore, whatever elevates the moral sentiment to the contemplation of beauty and grandeur is in itself ethical.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Money never can be well managed if sought solely through the greed of money for its own sake. In all meanness there is a defect of intellect as well as of heart. And even the cleverness of avarice is but the cunning of imbecility.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
In life, as in whist, hope nothing from the way cards may be dealt to you. Play the cards, whatever they be, to the best of your skill.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Every man of sound brain whom you meet knows something worth knowing better than yourself. A man, on the whole, is a better preceptor than a book. But what scholar does not allow that the dullest book can suggest to him a new and a sound idea?
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Alas! innocence is but a poor substitute for experience.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Love is the business of the idle, but the idleness of the busy.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Poets alone are sure of immortality; they are the truest diviners of nature.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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The affections are immortal! They are the sympathies which unite the ceaseless generations.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The imagination acquires by custom a certain involuntary, unconscious power of observation and comparison, correcting its own mistakes, and arriving at precision of judgment, just as the outward eye is disciplined to compare, adjust, estimate, measure, the objects reflected on the back of its retina.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Bright and illustrious illusions!
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Tears are akin to prayer - Pharisees parade prayers, imposters parade tears.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Nature never gives to a living thing capacities not particularly meant for its benefit and use. If Nature gives to us capacities to believe that we have a Creator whom we never saw, of whom we have no direct proof, who is kind and good and tender beyond all that we know of kindness and goodness and tenderness on earth, it is because the endowment of capacities to conceive a Being must be for our benefit and use; it would not be for our benefit and use if it were a lie.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Laws die, books never.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
It is a wonderful advantage to a man, in every pursuite or avocation, to secure an adviser in a sensible woman. In woman there is at once a subtle delicacy of tact, and a plain soundness of judgement, which are rarely combined to an equal degree in man. A woman, if she be really your friend, will have a sensitive regard for your character, honor, repute. She will seldom counsel you to do a shabby thing: for a woman friend always desires to be proud of you.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright manhood, there is no such word as fail.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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In all cases of heart-ache, the application of another man's disappointment draws out the pain and allays the irritation.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
There is no man so friendless but that he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Love thou rose, yet leave it on its stem.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Toil to some is happiness, and rest to others. This man can only breathe in crowds, and that man only in solitudes.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Vanity, indeed, is the very antidote to conceit; for while the former makes us all nerve to the opinion of others, the latter is perfectly satisfied with its opinion of itself.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Time, O my friend, is money! Time wasted can never conduce to money well managed.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Thought is valuable in proportion as it is generative.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Some have the temperament and tastes of genius, without its creative power. They feel acutely, but express tamely.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Our very wretchedness grows dear to us when suffering for one we love.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
In solitude the passions feed upon the heart.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Grief alone can teach us what is man.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Love sacrifices all things to bless the thing it loves.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Fortune is said to be blind, but her favorites never are. Ambition has the eye of the eagle, prudence that of the lynx; the first looks through the air, the last along the ground.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Common sense is only a modification of talent. Genius is an exaltation of it. The difference is, therefore, in degree, not nature.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Refuse to be ill. Never tell people you are ill; never own it to yourself. Illness is one of those things which a man should resist on principle at the onset.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
The easiest person to deceive is one's self.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
One of the surest evidences of friendship that one individual can display to another is telling him gently of a fault. If any other can excel it, it is listening to such a disclosure with gratitude, and amending the error.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief: enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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Whatever you lend let it be your money, and not your name. Money you may get again, and, if not, you may contrive to do without it; name once lost you cannot get again.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame -to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a Hell!
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
To dispense with ceremony is the most delicate mode of conferring a compliment.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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I did not fall into love - I rose into love.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Man must be disappointed with the lesser things of life before he can comprehend the full value of the greater.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Say what we will, we may be sure that ambition is an error. Its wear and tear on the heart are never recompensed.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
When one is in a good sound rage, it is astonishing how calm one can be.
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton -
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