Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton Quotes

If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.

In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.

Art and science have their meeting point in method.

The easiest person to deceive is one's self.

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

A good cigar is as great a comfort to a man as a good cry to a woman.

Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.

Talent does what it can, and genius does what it must.

It is astonishing how little one feels poverty when one loves.

The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.

A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool.

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 today.

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

A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.

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

Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes.

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

'It is destiny' phrase of the weak human heart! 'It is destiny' dark apology for every error! The strong and virtuous admit no destiny.

Give, and you may keep your friend it you lose your money; lend, and the chances are that you lose your friend if ever you get back your money.

It was a dark and stormy night and 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 fierce.

Nine times out of ten it is over the Bridge of Sighs that we pass the narrow gulf from youth to manhood. That interval is usually marked by an ill placed or disappointed affection. We recover and we find ourselves a new being. The intellect has become hardened by the fire through which it has passed. The mind profits by the wrecks of every passion, and we may measure our road to wisdom by the sorrows we have undergone.

The heart of a man's like that delicate weed, Which requires to be trampled on, boldly indeed Ere it gives forth the fragrance you wish to extract.

When the world has got hold of a lie, it is astonishing how hard it is to kill it. You beat it over the head, till it seems to have given up the ghost, and behold! the next day it is as healthy as ever.

To dispense with ceremony is the most delicate mode of conferring a compliment.

Humor is the sunshine of the mind.