390 Quotes by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.

Bright and illustrious illusions!

We are not such fools as to pay for reading inferior books, when we can read superior books for nothing.

Art does not imitate nature, but founds itself on the study of nature, takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz: The mind and soul of man.

Two lives that once part are as ships that divide.

Man only of all earthly creatures, asks, Can the dead die forever? – and the instinct that urges the question is God’s answer to man, for no instinct is given in vain.

The prudent person may direct a state, but it is the enthusiast who regenerates or ruins it.

Men never forgive those in whom there is nothing to pardon.

He who writes prose builds his temple to Fame in rubble; he who writes verses builds it in granite.