Zanoni Quotes

“He never conversed upon his own origin and history, nor have I ever been able to penetrate the darkness in which they were concealed. He seemed to have seen much of the world, and to have been an eye-witness of the first French Revolution, a subject upon which he was equally eloquent and instructive. At the same time he did not regard the crimes of that stormy period with the philosophical leniency with which enlightened writers (their heads safe upon their shoulders) are, in the present day, inclined to treat the massacres of the past: he spoke not as a student who had read and reasoned, but as a man who had seen and suffered.”
― Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“I will believe him to have been a very respectable man, who only spoke the truth when he boasted of his power to be in two places at the same time." "Is that so difficult?" said the old gentleman; "if so, you have never dreamed!”
― Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“Sinto que nas minha veias arde um desejo mais ardente do que o de amor: é o Desejo de não me assemelhar aos da minha espécie, mas de excedê-los, o desejo de penetrar no segredo da sua própria existência e de participar dele, o desejo de um conhecimento sobrenatural e de um poder supraterrestre.”
― Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“Há momentos, na vida, em que a sabedoria vem da imaginação e não da prudência.”
― Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“E era apenas o contraste dessas duas entidades: o Ser e a Sombra, a Luz e as Trevas, que impressionara o jovem com a diferença que havia entre elas, ou seja, o homem e o sobre-humano.”
― Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“A sabedoria, contemplando o género humano, só conduz a estes dois resultados: ao desdém ou à compaixão.”
― Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“If at times thou canst not comprehend the language of my thoughts, at times also I hear sweet enigmas in that of thy emotions.”
― Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“This confession leads me to the sentence with which I shall conclude: If, reader, in this book there be anything that pleases you, it is certainly mine; but whenever you come to something you dislike,—lay the blame upon the old gentleman!”
― Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“I, artist in words, dedicate, then, to you, artist whose ideas speak in marble, this well-loved work of my matured manhood. I love it not the less because it has been little understood and superficially judged by the common herd: it was not meant for them. I love it not the more because it has found enthusiastic favorers amongst the Few. My affection for my work is rooted in the solemn and pure delight which it gave me to conceive and to perform.”
― Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni

“It has been justly said that the present half century has witnessed the rise and triumphs of science, the extent and marvels of which even Bacon's fancy never conceived, simultaneously with superstitions grosser than any which Bacon's age believed. "The one is, in fact, the natural reaction from the other. The more science seeks to exclude the miraculous, and reduce all nature, animate and inanimate, to an invariable law of sequences, the more does the natural instinct of man rebel, and seek an outlet for those obstinate questionings, those 'blank misgivings of a creature moving about in worlds not realised,' taking refuge in delusions as degrading as any of the so-called Dark Ages." It was the revolt from the chilling materialism of the age which inspired the mystic creations of "Zanoni" and "A Strange Story.”
― Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni