Benjamin Disraeli Quotes

Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to console undistinguished people for their want of fortune and their lack of merit.

Little things affect little minds.

I have begun several times many things, and I have often succeeded at last.

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad.

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation.

Nonsense, when earnest, is impressive, and sometimes takes you in. If you are in a hurry, you occasionally mistake it for sense.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

The very phrase 'foreign affairs' makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.

Small things affects small minds.

I was told that the privileged and the people formed two nations.

A man's fate is his own temper.

He thinks posterity is a pack-horse, always ready to be loaded.

The Continent will not suffer England to be the workshop of the world.

London; a nation, not a city.

Genius, when young, is divine.

The feathered arrow of satire has oft been wet with the heart's blood of its victims.

A new acquaintance is like a new book. I prefer it, even if bad, to a classic.

The press is not only free, it is powerful. That power is ours. It is the proudest that man can enjoy. It was not granted by monarchs, it was not gained for us by aristocracies; but it sprang from the people, and, with an immortal instinct, it has always worked for the people.

Under this roof are the heads of the family of Rothschild - a name famous in every capital of Europe and every division of the globe. If you like, we shall divide the United States into two parts, one for you, James [Rothschild], and one for you, Lionel [Rothschild]. Napoleon will do exactly and all that I shall advise him.

The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation.

You know, all is development. The principle is perpetually going on. First, there was nothing, then there was something; then-I forget the next-I think there were shells, then fishes; then we came-let me see-did we come next? Never mind that; we came at last. And at the next change there will be something very superior to us-something with wings. Ah! That's it: we were fishes, and I believe we shall be crows.

Poverty has its duties as well as its rights.

I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.

A nation has a fixed quantity of invention, and it will make itself felt.

Coalitions though successful have always found this, that their triumph has been brief.

Nobody is forgotten, when it is convenient to remember him.

There are some silent people who are more interesting than the best talkers.

As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.

A female friend, amiable, clever, and devoted, is a possession more valuable than parks and palaces; and without such a muse, few men can succeed in life, none be contented.

All is race - there is no other truth.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

The canter is a cure for every evil.

What 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. Instead of the city of the Violet Crown, a Lancashire village has expanded into a mighty region of factories and warehouses. Yet, rightly understood, Manchester is as great a human exploit; as Athens.

Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.

No man will treat with indifference the principle of race. It is the key to history, and why history is often so confused is that it has been written by men who are ignorant of this principle and all the knowledge it involves. . . Language and religion do not make a race--there is only one thing which makes a race, and that is blood.

Never argue. In society nothing must be; give only results. If any person differs from you, bow, and turn the conversation.

Happiness is only to be found in a recurrence to the principles of human nature; and these will prompt very simple measures.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.

It is well-known what a middleman is: he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other.

The Jews are a nervous people. Nineteen centuries of Christian love have taken a toll.

Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.

The question is this - Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence these new fanged theories.

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.

Propriety of manners, and consideration for others, are the two main characteristics of a gentleman.

The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.

Those authors who appear sometimes to forget they are writers, and remember they are men, will be our favorites.