The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

There is no index of character so sure as the voice.

Never take anything for granted.

Posterity will do justice to that unprincipled maniac Gladstone - extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition; and with one commanding characteristic - whether Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition, whether preaching, praying, speechifying or scribbling - never a gentleman.

Everything comes if a man will only wait.

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