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

— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Kenelm Chillingly (1873), Book IV, Ch. 7

About Edward Bulwer-Lytton

1803 – 1873

English novelist and politician, author of "The Last Days of Pompeii".

“All doubt is cowardice—all trust is brave.”

“Life, that ever needs forgiveness, has, for its first duty, to forgive.”

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

“Cease conceiving of education as mere preparation for later life, and make it the full meaning of the present life.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“Be attentive therefore, according to the instruction of the Gospel, to learn obedience from the lily and the bird.”

“Learn what dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what men live by.”

“The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness.”