"[William Henry] Harrison was speaking to Beckford about Bulwer. "A coxcomb", says Harrison. "Ay," said Beckford, "a cultivated one, and blows double!" Everybody has a spite at Bulwer because the public think him clever, and they don't."

"The sensation that is excited in the literary world by the simple announcement of a new work emanating from the pen of the talented E. L. Bulwer, is the precursor of the delight to be experienced by the perusal. Bulwer is the Napoleon of English literature—the great mover of that sphere in which he shines so resplendently—the individual whose magic quill, with one single drop of ink, can make thousands reflect. He is the metaphysician-novelist of England, as de Balzac is the pride of France. His works are not merely everyday books which we throw aside never to resume, after a hasty perusal: they are standard volumes in every library—they may occasionally serve as books of reference—their philosophy raises them to an eminence far above the common tale of interest purposely written to afford a momentary amusement."

"To complete the tale of my writings at this period, I may add that in 1833, at the request of Bulwer, who was just then completing his England and the English (a work, at that time, greatly in advance of the public mind), I wrote for him a critical account of Bentham's philosophy, a small part of which he incorporated in his text, and printed the rest (with an honourable acknowledgment), as an appendix In this, along with the favourable, a part also of the unfavourable side of my estimation of Bentham's doctrines, considered as a complete philosophy, was for the first time put into print."

"He Charles Greville] was the vainest being—I don't limit myself to man—that ever existed; and I don't forget Cicero and Lytton Bulwer."

"Men crowded to the House of Commons to hear the latest performance of "the orator of the century." Epigrams, antithesis, alliteration—all the conscious tricks of the trade—were packed into his ornate harangues, which no one now remembers."

"Of his own books, by far the best are the really charming comedies about The Caxtons and Kenelm Chillingley; none of his other works have a high literary importance now; with the possible exception of A Strange Story; but his Coming Race is historically interesting as foreshadowing those novels of the future which were afterwards such a weapon of the Socialists."

"You could not have the Victorian Age without him. And this was not due to wholly superficial things like his dandyism, his dark, sinister good looks and a great deal of the mere polished melodrama that he wrote. There was something in his all-round interests; in the variety of things he tried; in his half-aristocratic swagger as poet and politician, that made him in some ways a real touchstone of the time."

"This demonstrates an energy of exertion, a fecundity of invention, and a readiness of composition rarely to be met with; and when taken in connexion with the unquestionable excellence of several of his works, fairly entitles him to rank as one of the most extraordinary geniuses of the age. He is, undoubtedly, in prose, whether we regard his matter or his style, one of the best of our living writers. His poetry, however, is beneath mediocrity, and cannot but produce in the minds of the thousands who have read his novels with delight, a regret that he should waste his time in putting together such an heterogeneous and unmeaning mass of metre and rhyme as is contained in the "Siamese Twins," and some other of his poems. As a novelist, he is, without doubt, the most popular writer now living."

"The good man does good merely by living."

"Memory, no less than hope, owes its charm to "the far-away.""

"There are times when the mirth of others only saddens us, especially the mirth of children with high spirits, that jar on our own quiet mood."

"Life consists in the alternate process of learning and unlearning; but it is often wiser to unlearn than to learn."

"A fresh mind keeps the body fresh. Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday. As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes to-day."

"My father died shortly after I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and having a taste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wanderer over the face of the earth."

"Strike from mankind the principle of Faith, and men would have no more history than a flock of sheep."

"Truth makes on the ocean of nature no one track of light—every eye looking on finds its own."

"In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always modern."

"The man who succeeds above his fellows is the one who, early in life, clearly discerns his object, and towards that object habitually directs his powers. Even genius itself is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose. Every man who observes vigilantly and resolves steadfastly grows unconsciously into genius."

"Be prepared for either wisdom through joy, or wisdom through grief. Enough that, looking only through the mechanism by which this mortal world is impelled and improved, you know that cruelty is impossible to wisdom."

"Believe me that the happiest act of intellect, however lofty, is that which enables it to be cheerfully at home with the Real!"

"The heart loves repose and the soul contemplation, but the mind needs action."

"It is an inevitable law that a man, in spite of himself, should live for something higher than his own happiness. He cannot live in himself or for himself, however egotistical he may try to be. Every desire he has links him with others."

"Earnest men never think in vain, though their thoughts may be errors."

"We cannot think or act, but the soul of some man, who has lived before, points the way. The dead never die."

"It is not study alone that produces a writer; it is Intensity."

"Master books, but do not let them master you. Read to live, not live to read."

"Childhood and genius have the same master-organ in common—inquisitiveness. Let childhood have its way, and as it began where genius begins, it may find what genius finds."

"He never errs who sacrifices self."

"Love gains the shrine when Pity opes the door."

"Alone!—that worn-out word, So idly spoken, and so coldly heard; Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known, Of hope laid waste, knells in that word ALONE!"

"The brilliant chief, irregularly great, Frank, haughty, rash,— the Rupert of debate!"

"Why should the soul ever repose? God, its Principle, reposes never. While we speak, new worlds are sparkling forth—suns are throwing off their nebulae—nebulae are hardening into worlds. The Almighty proves His existence by creating."

"The most useless creature that ever yawned at a club, or counted the vermin on his rags under the suns of Calabria, has no excuse for want of intellect. What men want is not talent, it is purpose,—in other words, not the power to achieve, but the will to labour."

"Light literature,—that grace and flower of human culture, that best philosophy of all, humanizing us with gentle art, making us wise through the humours, elevated through the passions, tender in the affections of our kind."

""It is destiny!"—phrase of the weak human heart! "It is destiny!"—dark apology for every error! The strong and virtuous admit no destiny! On earth, guides Conscience—in heaven, watches God. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one—to dethrone the other!"

"Night, to the earnest soul, opens the Bible of the Universe, and on the leaves of Heaven is written,—"God is everywhere!""

"Though Hope be a small child, she can carry a great anchor!"

"Happy the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell!"

"Remorse is the echo of a lost virtue."

"We commenced research where modern conjecture closes its faithless wings. And with us, those were the common elements of science which the sages of to-day disdain as wild chimeras, or despair of as unfathomable mysteries."

"Man is arrogant in proportion to his ignorance."

"To the man who aspires to know, no man who has been the meanest student of knowledge should be unknown."

"Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny."

"Little minds give importance to the man who gives importance to nothing."

"The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan."

"When a person's down in the world, I think an ounce of help is better than a pound of preaching."

"Our glories float between the earth and heaven Like clouds which seem pavilions of the sun, And are the playthings of the casual wind."

"In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves For a bright manhood, there is no such word As "fail"."

"Ambition has no risk."

"Take away the sword— States can be saved without it!"