Better than fame is still the wish for fame, the constant training for a glorious strife. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton More Quotes by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton More Quotes From Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton The learned compute that seven hundred and seven millions of millions of vibrations have to penetrate the eye before the eye can distinguish the tints of a violet. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton vibrationseyeviolet Laws die, books never. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton readinglawbook Emulation, even in brutes, is sensitively "nervous." See the tremor of the thoroughbred racer before he starts. The dray-horse does not tremble, but he does not emulate. It is not his work to run a race. Says Marcus Antoninus, "It is all one to a stone whether it be thrown upward or downward." Yet the emulation of a man of genius is seldom with his contemporaries, that is, inwardly in his mind, although outwardly in his act it would seem so. The competitors with whom his secret ambition seems to vie are the dead. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton horseambitionrunning Certain I am that every author who has written a book with earnest forethought and fondly cherished designs will bear testimony to the fact that much which he meant to convey has never been guessed at in any review of his work; and many a delicate beauty of thought, on which he principally valued himself, remains, like the statue of Isis, an image of truth from which no hand lifts the veil. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton isisbookhands Though no participator in the joy of more vehement sport, I have a pleasure that I cannot reconcile to my abstract notions of the tenderness due to dumb creatures in the tranquil cruelty of angling. I can only palliate the wanton destructiveness of my amusement by trying to assure myself that my pleasure does not spring from the success of the treachery I practise toward a poor little fish, but rather from that innocent revelry in the luxuriance of summer life which only anglers enjoy to the utmost. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton summerspringsports It is noticeable how intuitively in age we go back with strange fondness to all that is fresh in the earliest dawn of youth. If we never cared for little children before, we delight to see them roll in the grass over which we hobble on crutches. The grandsire turns wearily from his middle-aged, careworn son, to listen with infant laugh to the prattle of an infant grandchild. It is the old who plant young trees; it is the old who are most saddened by the autumn; and feel most delight in the returning spring. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton autumnspringchildren A friend who stands with you in pressure is more valuable than a hundred ones who stand with you in pleasure. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton fake-friendspleasurepressure What is human is immortal! Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton immortalimmortalityhumans I have wrought great use out of evil tools. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton toolsuseevil We may observe in humorous authors that the faults they chiefly ridicule have often a likeness in themselves. Cervantes had much of the knight-errant in him; Sir George Etherege was unconsciously the Fopling Flutter of his own satire; Goldsmith was the same hero to chambermaids, and coward to ladies that he has immortalized in his charming comedy; and the antiquarian frivolities of Jonathan Oldbuck had their resemblance in Jonathan Oldbuck's creator. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton knightshumoroushero Life, that ever needs forgiveness, has, for its first duty, to forgive. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton forgivenessforgivingneeds Rank is a great beautifier. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton The faults of a brilliant writer are never dangerous on the long run; a thousand people read his work who would read no other; inquiry is directed to each of his doctrines; it is soon discovered what is sound and what is false; the sound become maxims, and the false beacons. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton runninglongpeople In every civilized society there is found a race of men who retain the instincts of the aboriginal cannibal and live upon their fellow-men as a natural food. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton racefellow-manmen Emotion, whether of ridicule, anger, or sorrow,--whether raised at a puppet show, a funeral, or a battle,--is your grandest of levellers. The man who would be always superior should be always apathetic. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton funeralsorrowmen Nothing so good as a university education, nor worse than a university without its education. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton university-educationuniversityeducation It is, the most beautiful truth in morals that we have no such thing as a distinct or divided interest from our race. In their welfare is ours, and by choosing the broadest paths to effect their happiness we choose the surest and the shortest to our own. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton democracyracebeautiful Never, be argued out of your soul, never be argued out of your honor, and never be argued into believing that soul and honor do not run a terrible risk if you limp into life with the load of a debt on your shoulders. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton soulrunningbelieve Debt is to man what the serpent is to the bird; its eye fascinates, its breath poisons, its coil crushes sinew and bone, its jaw is the pitiless grave. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton crusheyemen Dandies, when first-rate, are generally very agreeable men. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton ratemenfirsts
