Edward Bulwer-Lytton Quotes

There is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy.

Little minds give importance to the man who gives importance to nothing.

It is an inevitable law that a man, in spite of himself, should live for something higher than his own happiness. He cannot live in himself or for himself, however egotistical he may try to be. Every desire he has links him with others.

Books are waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.

Memory, no less than hope, owes its charm to "the far-away."

Strike from mankind the principle of Faith, and men would have no more history than a flock of sheep.

Ambition has no risk.

Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.

Be prepared for either wisdom through joy, or wisdom through grief. Enough that, looking only through the mechanism by which this mortal world is impelled and improved, you know that cruelty is impossible to wisdom.

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.

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.

The Wind and the Beam loved the Rose, And the Rose loved one:
For who recks the Wind where it blows? Or loves not the Sun?None knew whence the humble Wind stole, Poor sport of the skies:
None dreamt that the Wind had a soul In its mournful sighs.O happy Beam, how canst thou prove That bright love of thine?
In thy light is the proof of thy love, Thou hast but to shine.How its love can the Wind reveal? Unwelcome its sigh:
Mute, mute to the Rose let it steal— Its proof is—to die!

The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.

Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny.

We commenced research where modern conjecture closes its faithless wings. And with us, those were the common elements of science which the sages of to-day disdain as wild chimeras, or despair of as unfathomable mysteries.