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 Ask any school-boy up to the age of fifteen where he would spend his holidays. Not one in five hundred will say, "In the streets of London," if you give him the option of green fields and running waters. It is, then, a fair presumption that there must be something of the child still in the character of the men or the women whom the country charms in maturer as in dawning life. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton running country children A man's own conscience is his sole tribunal, and he should care no more for that phantom "opinion" than he should fear meeting a ghost if he crossed the churchyard at dark. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton care dark men The most delicate beauty in the mind of women is, and ever must be, an independence of artificial stimulants for content. It is not so with men. The links that bind men to capitals belong to the golden chain of civilization,--the chain which fastens all our destinies to the throne of Jove. And hence the larger proportion of men in whom genius is pre-eminent have preferred to live in cities, though some of them have bequeathed to us the loveliest pictures of the rural scenes in which they declined to dwell. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton destiny men civilization The Management of money is, in much, the management of self. If heaven allotted to each man seven guardian angels, five of them, at least, would be found night and day hovering over his pockets. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton money angel night Come, Death, and snatch me from disgrace. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton disgrace There is no policy like politeness; and a good manner is the best thing in the world either to get a good name, or to supply the want of it. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton good-man names world He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton ignorant personality may A man's ancestry is a positive property to him. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton property ancestry men The worst part of an eminent man's conversation is, nine times out of ten, to be found in that part by which he means to be clever. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton clever men mean He who esteems trifles for themselves is a trifler; he who esteems them for the conclusions to be drawn from them, or the advantage to which they can be put, is a philosopher. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton trifles philosopher advantage Archaeology is not only the hand maid of history, it is also the conservator of art. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton maids hands art We love the beautiful and serene, but we have a feeling as deep as love for the terrible and dark. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton dark feelings beautiful Trees that, like the poplar, lift upward all their boughs, give no shade and no shelter, whatever their height. Trees the most lovingly shelter and shade us, when, like the willow, the higher soar their summits, the lower drop their boughs. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton shelter tree giving A man is already of consequence in the world when it is known that we can implicitly rely upon him. Often I have known a man to be preferred in stations of honor and profit because he had this reputation: When he said he knew a thing, he knew it, and when he said he would do a thing, he did it. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton rely-upon trust men The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton tobacco-smoking men thinking Castles in the air cost a vast deal to keep up. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton castles cost air When a man is not amused, he feels an involuntary contempt for those who are. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton contempt feels men We are not such fools as to pay for reading inferior books, when we can read superior books for nothing. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton fool reading book Man hazards the condition and loses the virtues of a freeman, in proportion as he accustoms his thoughts to view without anguish or shame, his lapse into the bondage of debtor. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton debt views men Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton punctuality virtue men