Quotes by Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton

In the lexicon of youth, which Fate reserves For a bright manhood, there is no such word As -fail !

Two lives that once part are like ships that divide. 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.

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

What men want is not talent, it is purpose; in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labor.

Every great man exhibits the talent of organization or construction, whether it be in a poem, a philosophical system, a policy, or a strategy. And without method there is no organization nor construction.

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

The easiest person to deceive is one's own self.

Revenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed. The savage deems it noble;but the religion of Christ, which is the sublime civilizer, emphatically condemns it. Why? Because religion ever seeks to ennoble man; and nothing so debases him as revenge.

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.

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