The curse of the great is ennui. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton More Quotes by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton More Quotes From Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton Nature never gives to a living thing capacities not particularly meant for its benefit and use. If Nature gives to us capacities to believe that we have a Creator whom we never saw, of whom we have no direct proof, who is kind and good and tender beyond all that we know of kindness and goodness and tenderness on earth, it is because the endowment of capacities to conceive a Being must be for our benefit and use; it would not be for our benefit and use if it were a lie. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton kindness believe lying Fortune is said to be blind, but her favorites never are. Ambition has the eye of the eagle, prudence that of the lynx; the first looks through the air, the last along the ground. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton eye ambition air The world thinks eccentricity in great things is genius, but in small things, only crazy. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton genius crazy thinking The first essential to success in the art you practice is respect for the art itself. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton essentials practice art The poet in prose or verse - the creator - can only stamp his images forcibly on the page in proportion as he has forcibly felt, ardently nursed, and long brooded over them. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton pages poetry long What a mistake to suppose that the passions are strongest in youth! The passions are not stronger, but the control over them is weaker! They are more easily excited, they are more violent and apparent; but they have less energy, less durability, less intense and concentrated power than in maturer life. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton stronger passion mistake The more the merely human part of the poet remains a mystery, the more willing is the reverence given to his divine mission. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton mystery poet divine Grief alone can teach us what is man. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton sadness grief men In solitude the passions feed upon the heart. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton passion solitude heart Our very wretchedness grows dear to us when suffering for one we love. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton dear suffering love In all cases of heart-ache, the application of another man's disappointment draws out the pain and allays the irritation. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton pain disappointment letting-go There is no man so friendless but that he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton sincere friendship men Love thou rose, yet leave it on its stem. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton stem flower rose Toil to some is happiness, and rest to others. This man can only breathe in crowds, and that man only in solitudes. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton solitude work men Vanity, indeed, is the very antidote to conceit; for while the former makes us all nerve to the opinion of others, the latter is perfectly satisfied with its opinion of itself. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton vanity nerves opinion Time, O my friend, is money! Time wasted can never conduce to money well managed. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton wells my-friends time Thought is valuable in proportion as it is generative. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton proportion valuable Some have the temperament and tastes of genius, without its creative power. They feel acutely, but express tamely. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton genius creative taste Art itself is essentially ethical; because every true work of art must have a beauty or grandeur of some kind, and beauty and grandeur cannot be comprehended by the beholder except through the moral sentiment. The eye is only a witness; it is not a judge. The mind judges what the eye reports to it; therefore, whatever elevates the moral sentiment to the contemplation of beauty and grandeur is in itself ethical. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton eye judging art 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. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton truth firsts thinking
