Lucretia, Part II, Chapter XII
Context: The most useless creature that ever yawned at a club, or counted the vermin on his rags under the suns of Calabria, has no excuse for want of intellect. What men want is not talent, it is purpose,—in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour.
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Edward Bulwer-Lytton: 31 quotes3 likes
Famous Edward Bulwer-Lytton Quotes
“Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act ii, Scene ii. This is the origin of the much quoted phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword". Compare: "Hinc quam sic calamus sævior ense, patet. The pen worse than the sword", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, Part i. Sect. 2, Memb. 4, Subsect. 4.
Richelieu (1839)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Quotes
Kenelm Chillingly : His Adventures and Opinions (1873), Book I, Ch. 8.
“A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.”
The Disowned (1828), Chapter xxxiii.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton book Paul Clifford
Probably the most parodied and ridiculed opening line in literature. It is the inspiration for a satirical prize, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Used by Charles M. Schultz in the Peanuts cartoons.
Paul Clifford (1830)
“Truth makes on the ocean of nature no one track of light — every eye looking on finds its own”
Caxtoniana: Hints on Mental Culture (1862)
Last of the Barons (1843), Book v, Chapter i.
“Take away the sword;
States can be saved without it.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act iii, Scene i.
Richelieu (1839)
“The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.”
The Disowned (1828), Chapter xlii.
“Fate laughs at probabilities.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton book Eugene Aram
Eugene Aram (1832), Book i, Chapter x.
Kenelm Chillingly; His Adventures and Opinions (1873).
“In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves
For a bright manhood, there is no such word
As "fail."”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act iii, Scene i.
Richelieu (1839)
Caxtoniana: Hints on Mental Culture (1862)
“The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan.”
Night and Morning (1841), Chapter vi.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton The Lady of Lyons
The Lady of Lyons (1838), Act ii, Scene i.
“The magic of the tongue is the most dangerous of all spells.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton book Eugene Aram
Eugene Aram (1832), Book i, Chapter vii.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton book Vril
Source: The Coming Race (1870), Chapter 1. This is the origin of the phrase "pursuit of the almighty dollar". Washington Irving coined the expression almighty dollar itself.
“The brilliant chief, irregularly great,
Frank, haughty, rash,— the Rupert of debate!”
The New Timon (1846), Part i. In April, 1844, Benjamin Disraeli thus alluded to Lord Stanley: “The noble lord is the Rupert of debate.”
“Our glories float between the earth and heaven
Like clouds which seem pavilions of the sun.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton Richelieu
Act v, Scene iii.
Richelieu (1839)
Caxtoniana: Hints on Mental Culture (1862)
Edward Bulwer-Lytton book Zanoni
Quoted by H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Part One, Science, Ch. 1 (1877)
Zanoni (1842)
