Certain I am that every author who has written a book with earnest forethought and fondly cherished designs will bear testimony to the fact that much which he meant to convey has never been guessed at in any review of his work; and many a delicate beauty of thought, on which he principally valued himself, remains, like the statue of Isis, an image of truth from which no hand lifts the veil.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonThe first essential to success in the art you practice is respect for the art itself.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonEarnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts may be errors.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonA man's heart must be very frivolous if the possession of fame rewards the labor to attain it. For the worst of reputation is that it is not palpable or present - we do not feel or see or taste it.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonA man of genius is inexhaustible only in proportion as he is always renourishing his genius.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron LyttonThere is a world of science necessary in choosing books. I have known some people in great sorrow fly to a novel, or the last light book in fashion. One might as well take a rose-draught for the plague! Light reading does not do when the heart is really heavy. I am told that Goethe, when he lost his son, took to study a science that was new to him. Ah! Goethe was a physician who knew what he was about.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton