Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
enthusiast ruins
The prudent person may direct a state, but it is the enthusiast who regenerates or ruins it.
sincerity truth victories
Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it.
disposal generous giveth happiness man thou unto
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.
attracted dazzling draw extract follies learned life
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.
art point science
Art and science have their meeting point in method.
best inspires listener rather teacher
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.
brainy
Talent does what it can; genius does what it must.
agonizing fine rough truth
There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth.
wants
What mankind wants is not talent; it is purpose.
certainty life
There is nothing certain in a man's life but that he must lose it.
classic newest science
In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.
truth
One of the sublimest things in the world is plain truth.
account chance gift happens turn
Chance happens to all, but to turn chance to account is the gift of few.
ascribe author consistent drew human nature
No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies.