Men are valued, not for what they are, but for what they seem to be. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton More Quotes by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton More Quotes From Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton dignityessentialsliberty When some one sorrow, that is yet reparable, gets hold of your mind like a monomania,--when you think, because Heaven has denied you this or that, on which you had set your heart, that all your life must be a blank,--oh, then diet yourself well on biography,--the biography of good and great men. See how little a space one sorrow really makes in life. See scarce a page, perhaps, given to some grief similar to your own, and how triumphantly the life sails on beyond it. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton griefheartmen Not in the knowledge of things without, but in the perfection of the soul within, lies the empire of man aspiring to be more than man. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton perfectionmenlying If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton wishpregnancylove Keep we to the broad truths before us; duty here; knowledge comes alone in the Hereafter. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton broadstruth-isduty Read to live, not live to read. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton In families well ordered, there is always one firm, sweet temper, which controls without seeming to dictate. The Greeks represented Persuasion as crowned. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton persuasiongreeksweet Man must be disappointed with the lesser things of life before he can comprehend the full value of the greater. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton disappointed-lovegreaterdisappointment People who are very vain are usually equally susceptible; and they who feel one thing acutely, will so feel another. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton vanityvainpeople The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton communicationfriendshipmen The conscience is the most flexible material in the world. Today you cannot stretch it over a mole hill; while tomorrow it can hide a mountain. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton molesmountainworld The prudent person may direct a state, but it is the enthusiast who regenerates or ruins it Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton enthusiasmmayinspirational Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton enthusiasm-for-lifevictoryinspirational He who doth not smoke hath either known no great griefs, or refuseth himself the softest consolation, next to that which comes from heaven. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton cigarette-smokegriefsmoking A good cigar is as great a comfort to a man as a good cry to a woman. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton humorousmenfunny 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. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton principlesmenpeople Death is the only monastery; the tomb is the only cell, and the grave that adjoins the convent is the bitterest mock of its futility. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton gravescellsdeath As the films of clay are removed from our eyes, Death loses the false aspect of the spectre, and we fall at last into its arms as a wearied child upon the bosom of its mother. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton motherdeathchildren 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. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton prosperitywealthmen I would rather have five energetic and competent enemies than one fool friend. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton foolenergeticenemy