There is one form of hope which is never unwise, and which certainly does not diminish with the increase of knowledge. In… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Talk not of genius baffled. Genius is master of man. Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
The law is a gun, which if it misses a pigeon always kills a crow; if it does not strike the guilty,… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
The more a man desirous to pass at a value above his worth can contrast, by dignified silence, the garrulity of trivial… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Irony is to the high-bred what billingsgate is to the vulgar; and when one gentleman thinks another gentleman an ass, he does… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Every man of sound brain whom you meet knows something worth knowing better than yourself. A man, on the whole, is a… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Art does not imitate nature, but founds itself on the study of nature, takes from nature the selections which best accord with… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
There is a world of science necessary in choosing books. I have known some people in great sorrow fly to a novel, or the last light book in fashion. One might as well take a rose-draught for the plague! Light reading does not do when the heart is really heavy. I am told that Goethe, when he lost his son,… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share
Though no participator in the joy of more vehement sport, I have a pleasure that I cannot reconcile to my abstract notions… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Emulation, even in brutes, is sensitively "nervous." See the tremor of the thoroughbred racer before he starts. The dray-horse does not tremble, but he does not emulate. It is not his work to run a race. Says Marcus Antoninus, "It is all one to a stone whether it be thrown upward or downward." Yet the emulation of a man of… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share
Only by the candle, held in the skeleton hand of Poverty, can man read his own dark heart. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
It is a very high mind to which gratitude is not a painful sensation. If you wish to please, you will find it wiser… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
The same refinement which brings us new pleasures exposes us to new pains. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
In science, address the few, in literature the many. In science, the few must dictate opinion to the many; in literature, the many, sooner… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Earnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts may be errors. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Philosophers have done wisely when they have told us to cultivate our reason rather than our feelings, for reason reconciles us to the daily… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
I did not fall into love - I rose into love. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image
Each man forms his duty according to his predominant characteristic; the stern require an avenging judge; the gentle, a forgiving father. Just so the… — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Copy Share Image