Edward Bulwer-Lytton citations

“Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”

“A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes to-day.”

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

“Talent does what it can: Genius does what it must.”

“To find what you seek in the road of life,
the best proverb of all is that which says:
"Leave no stone unturned.”

“He who doth not smoke hath either known no great griefs, or refuseth himself the softest consolation, next to that which comes from heaven.”

“We love the beautiful and serene, but we have a feeling as deep as love for the terrible and dark.”

“A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.”

“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 housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.”

“Truth makes on the ocean of nature no one track of light — every eye looking on finds its own”

“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.”

“Take away the sword;
States can be saved without it.”

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

“You speak
As one who fed on poetry.”

“Alone! — that worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that poets sing and grief hath known
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word ALONE!”

“Fate laughs at probabilities.”

“There are times when the mirth of others only saddens us, especially the mirth of children with high spirits, that jar on our own quiet mood.”

“In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves
For a bright manhood, there is no such word
As "fail."”

“In science, read, by preference the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.”

“The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan.”

“Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beauseant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,—"Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost."”

“Rank is a great beautifier.”

“The magic of the tongue is the most dangerous of all spells.”

“My father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wanderer over the face of the earth.”

“The brilliant chief, irregularly great,
Frank, haughty, rash,— the Rupert of debate!”

“Our glories float between the earth and heaven
Like clouds which seem pavilions of the sun.”

“Ambition has no risk.”

“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.”

“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.”