Though no participator in the joy of more vehement sport, I have a pleasure that I cannot reconcile to my abstract notions of the tenderness due to dumb creatures in the tranquil cruelty of angling. I can only palliate the wanton destructiveness of my amusement by trying to assure myself that my pleasure does not spring from the success of the treachery I practise toward a poor little fish, but rather from that innocent revelry in the luxuriance of summer life which only anglers enjoy to the utmost.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonDebt is to man what the serpent is to the bird; its eye fascinates, its breath poisons, its coil crushes sinew and bone, its jaw is the pitiless grave.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonWe are not such fools as to pay for reading inferior books, when we can read superior books for nothing.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonA reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonSooner mayest thou trust thy pocket to a pickpocket than give loyal friendship to the man who boasts of eyes to the heart never mounts in dew! Only when man weeps he should be alone, not because tears are weak, but they should be secret. Tears are akin to prayer,--Pharisees parade prayers, imposters parade tears.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton