A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.
Benjamin DisraeliThere is no gambling like politics. Nothing in which the power of circumstance is more evident.
Benjamin DisraeliGreat revolutions, whatever may be their causes, are not lightly commenced, and are not concluded with precipitation.
Benjamin DisraeliYou will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.
Benjamin DisraeliTwo nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.
Benjamin DisraeliWhen men are young, they want experience and when they have gained experience, they want energy.
Benjamin DisraeliThe girl of the period sets up to be natural, and is only rude; mistakes insolence for innocence; says everything that comes first to her lips, and thinks she is gay when she is only giddy.
Benjamin DisraeliIndividuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Benjamin DisraeliLife is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervour.
Benjamin DisraeliThe constitution of England is not a paper constitution. It is an aggregate of institutions, many of them founded merely upon prescription, some of them fortified by muniments, but all of them the fruit and experience of an ancient and illustrious people.
Benjamin DisraeliMan is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.
Benjamin DisraeliLike all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.
Benjamin DisraeliThe art of conversation is to be prompt without being stubborn, to refute without argument, and to clothe great matters in a motley garb.
Benjamin DisraeliIf the history of England be ever written by one who has the knowledge and the courage,-and both qualities are equally requisite for the undertaking, - the world will be more astonished than when reading the Roman annals by Niebuhr.
Benjamin DisraeliEloquence is the child of knowledge. When a mind is full, like a wholesome river, it is also clear.
Benjamin DisraeliThe noble Lord (Stanley) was the Prince Rupert to the Parliamentary army--his valour did not always serve his own cause.
Benjamin DisraeliWhat art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern; the distinctive faculty. In the minds of men, the useful has succeeded to the beautiful.
Benjamin DisraeliThe delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.
Benjamin DisraeliIt was not reason that besieged Troy; it was not reason that sent forth the Saracen from the desert to conquer the world; that inspired the crusades; that instituted the monastic orders; it was not reason that produced the Jesuits; above all, it was not reason that created the French Revolution. Man is only great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.
Benjamin DisraeliLord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace--but a peace I hope with honour.
Benjamin DisraeliYes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
Benjamin DisraeliNothing can withstand the power of the human will if it is willing to stake its very existence to the extent of its purpose.
Benjamin DisraeliExtreme views are never just; something always turns up which disturbs the calculations formed upon their data.
Benjamin DisraeliA member of Parliament to Disraeli: 'Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.' That depends, Sir,' said Disraeli, 'whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.
Benjamin Disraeli