Benjamin Disraeli Quotes

The sweet simplicity of the three percents.

I do not understand how an aristocracy can exist, unless it be distinguished by some quality which no other class of the community possesses.

The enterprise of America precedes that of Europe, as the industry of England precedes that of the rest of Europe.

As for our majority... one is enough.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

Had it not been for you, I should have remained what I was when we first met, a prejudiced, narrow-minded being, with contracted sympathies and false knowledge, wasting my life on obsolete trifles, and utterly insensible to the privilege of living in this wondrous age of change and progress.

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.

Lady Lytton rules her husband, but that I suppose is always the case where marriages are what is called 'happy'.

The world is ruled by other people, than people believe to know.

Mr Speaker, I withdraw my statement that half the cabinet are asses - half the cabinet are not asses.

The care of the public health is the first duty of the statesman.

Patriotism depends as much on mutual suffering as on mutual success; and it is by that experience of all fortunes and all feelings that a great national character is created.

Candor is the brightest gem of criticism.

How fair is a garden amid the toils and passions of existence.

Novelty is an essential attribute of the beautiful.

Women carry a beautiful hand with them to the grave, when a beautiful face has long ago vanished.

Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy.

It is the lot of man to suffer; it is also his fortune to forget. Oblivion and sorrow share our being, as darkness and light divide the course of time.

A man's fate is his own temper; and according to that will be his opinion as to the particular manner in which the course of events is regulated. A consistent man believes in destiny, a capricious man in chance.

We make our own fortune and call it destiny.

You must not contrast too strongly the hours of courtship with the years of possession.

A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.

Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.

The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of posterity.

She is an excellent creature, but she can never remember which came first, the Greeks or the Romans.

Man is a being born to believe. And if no church comes forward with its title-deeds of truth to guide him, he will find altars and idols in his own heart and his own imagination.

As a general rule, nobody has money who ought to have it.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

How very seldom do you encounter in the world a man of great abilities, acquirements, experience, who will unmask his mind, unbutton his brains, and pour forth in careless and picturesque phrase all the results of his studies and observation; his knowledge of men, books, and nature. On the contrary, if a man has by any chance an original idea, he hoards it as if it were old gold; and rather avoids the subject with which he is most conversant, from fear that you may appropriate his best thoughts.

All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.

Demagogues and agitators are very unpleasant, they are incidental to a free and constitutional country, and you must put up with these inconveniences or do without many important advantages.

The indulgence in grief is a blunder.

To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.

We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.

I grew intoxicated with my own eloquence.

The difference of race is one of the reasons why I fear war may always exist; because race implies difference, difference implies superiority, and superiority leads to predominance.

The originality of a subject is in its treatment.

Customs may not be as wise as laws, but they are always more popular.

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

The Italians say it is not necessary to be a stag; but we ought not to be a tortoise.

The press is not only free, it is powerful. That power is ours. It is the proudest that man can enjoy.

I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me.

It is remarkable that when great discoveries are effected, their simplicity always seems to detract from their originality: on these occasions we are reminded of the egg of Columbus!

Our domestic affections are the most salutary basis of all good government.

And it is a singular truth that, though a man may shake off national habits, accent, manner of thinking, style of dress,--though he may become perfectly identified with another nation, and speak its language well, perhaps better than his own,--yet never can he succeed in changing his handwriting to a foreign style.

Every moment is travel - if understood.