A man who cannot win fame in big own age will have a very small chance of winning it from posterity. True, there are some half-dozen exceptions to this truth among millions of myriads that attest it; but what man of common sense would invest any large amount of hope in so unpromising a lottery?
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonRevenge is a common passion; it is the sin of the uninstructed.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonThe 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 LyttonA 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 LyttonBright and illustrious illusions! Who can blame, who laugh at the boy, who not admire and commend him, for that desire of a fame outlasting the Pyramids by which he insensibly learns to live in a life beyond the present, and nourish dreams of a good unattainable by the senses?
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton