Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The good man does good merely by living.

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

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.

Life consists in the alternate process of learning and unlearning; but it is often wiser to unlearn than to learn.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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 …

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.

Believe me that the happiest act of intellect, however lofty, is that which enables it to be cheerfully at home with the Real!

The heart loves repose and the soul contemplation, but the mind needs action.

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.

Earnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts may be errors.

We cannot think or act, but the soul of some man, who has lived before, points the way. The dead never die.

It is not study alone that produces a writer; it is Intensity.

Master books, but do not let them master you. Read to live, not live to read.

Childhood and genius have the same master-organ in common—inquisitiveness. Let childhood have its way, and as it began where genius begins, it may find what genius finds.

He never errs who sacrifices self.

Love gains the shrine when Pity opes the door.

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

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

Why should the soul ever repose? God, its Principle, reposes never. While we speak, new worlds are sparkling forth—suns are throwing off their nebulae—nebulae are hardening into worlds. The Almighty proves His existence by creating.