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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.

— Edward Bulwer-Lytton Lucretia (1846)

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More quotes by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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

Caxtoniana (1862)

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

Zanoni (1842)

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

Caxtoniana (1862)

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!

The Last of the Barons (1843)

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.

Richelieu (1839)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edward Bulwer-Lytton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.