Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

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

Whatever the number of a man's friends, there will be times in his life when he has one too few; but if he has only one enemy, he is lucky indeed if he has not one too many.

We tell our triumphs to the crowds, but our own hearts are the sole confidants of our sorrows.

Chance happens to all, but to turn chance to account is the gift of few.

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

How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism.

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

One of the surest evidences of friendship that one individual can display to another is telling him gently of a fault. If any other can excel it, it is listening to such a disclosure with gratitude, and amending the error.

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

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

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

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

The prudent person may direct a state, but it is the enthusiast who regenerates or ruins it.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

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.

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

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

Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue.

Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it.

I cannot love as I have loved, And yet I know not why; It is the one great woe of life To feel all feeling die.

There is nothing certain in a man's life but that he must lose it.

What ever our wandering our happiness will always be found within a narrow compass, and in the middle of the objects more immediately within our reach.

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

Art and science have their meeting point in method.

Be it jewel or toy, not the prize gives the joy, but the striving to win the prize.

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

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

Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength.

There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth.

Dream manfully and nobly, and thy dreams shall be prophets.

There is no such thing as luck. It's a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes.

What is past is past, there is a future left to all men, who have the virtue to repent and the energy to atone.

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

What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.

No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.

Genius does what it must, and talent does what it can.

One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth.

Two lives that once part are as ships that divide.

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

The pen is mightier than the sword.

If thou be industrious to procure wealth, be generous in the disposal of it. Man never is so happy as when he giveth happiness unto another.

The easiest person to deceive is one's self.

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.

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

Love thou the rose, yet leave it on its stem.

It is not by the gray of the hair that one knows the age of the heart.

O be very sure That no man will learn anything at all, Unless he first will learn humility.