Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Quotes

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Genius is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Purpose, Genius, Fine

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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

Character, Heart, Men

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The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Excellence, Wish, Desire

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Every man who observes vigilantly, and resolves steadfastly, grows unconsciously into genius.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Motivation, Men, Genius

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Love is the business of the idle, but the idleness of the busy.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Love, Busy, Indolence

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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

Men, People, Principles

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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

Friendship, Character, Men

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As a general rule, people who flagrantly pretend to anything are the reverse of that which they pretend to. A man who sets up for a saint is sure to be a sinner; and a man who boasts that he is a sinner is sure to have some feeble, maudlin, snivelling bit of saintship about him which is enough to make him a humbug.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Men, People, Saint

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Love is on the verge of hate each time it stoops for pardon.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Hate, Love Is, Pardon

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Prudence, patience, labor, valor; these are the stars that rule the career of mortals.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Stars, Careers, Valor

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Out of the ashes of misanthropy benevolence rises again; we find many virtues where we had imagined all was vice, many acts of disinterested friendship where we had fancied all was calculation and fraud--and so gradually from the two extremes we pass to the proper medium; and, feeling that no human being is wholly good or wholly base, we learn that true knowledge of mankind which induces us to expect little and forgive much. The world cures alike the optimist and the misanthrope.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Two, Feelings, Forgiving

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In how large a proportion of creatures is existence composed of one ruling passion, the most agonizing of all sensations--fear.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Fear, Passion, Agonizing

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A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Ideas, Yesterday, Mind

"Kenelm Chillingly : His Adventures and Opinions" by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Book I, Ch. 8, 1873.

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Anger ventilated often hurries towards forgiveness; anger concealed often hardens into revenge.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Revenge, Anger, Concealed

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Fate! There is no fate. Between the thought and the success God is the only agent. Fate is not the ruler, but the servant of Providence.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Fate, Agents, Providence

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

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Aristocracy, Wealth, Democratic

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A sense of contentment makes us kindly and benevolent to others; we are not chafed and galled by cares which are tyrannical because original. We are fulfilling our proper destiny, and those around us feel the sunshine of our own hearts.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Heart, Sunshine, Destiny

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

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Magic, Tongue, Language

"Eugene Aram". Book I, Chapter VII, 1832.

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Happiness and virtue rest upon each other; the best are not only the happiest, but the happiest are usually the best.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Happiness, Inner Peace, Virtue

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Kindness like light speaks in the air it gilds.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Kindness, Light, Air

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And, of all the things upon earth, I hold that a faithful friend is the best.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Friendship, Faithful, Earth

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When a person is down in the world, an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Helping Others, World, Pounds

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Let youth cherish sleep, the happiest of earthly boons, while yet it is at its command; for there cometh the day to all when "neither the voice of the lute nor the birds" shall bring back the sweet slumbers that fell on their young eyes as unbidden as the dews.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Sweet, Eye, Sleep

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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

Heart, Ambition, Errors

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Tears are akin to prayer - Pharisees parade prayers, imposters parade tears.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Prayer, Tears, Pharisees

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Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

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Born: May 25, 1803
Died: January 18, 1873
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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