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

— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, A Strange Story (1862), Ch. 60

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.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

“There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind.”

“In Oran, as elsewhere, for want of time and thought, people have to love one another without knowing it.”

“When Life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.”

“The heart of life is a sphere quiet and serene, and the star that shines therein is fixed for evermore.”

“The mind weighs and measures but it is the spirit that reaches the heart of life and embraces the secret.”