Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881)
British politician, novelist, and essayist, serving twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Time is the great physician.
To govern men, you must either excel them in their accomplishments, or despise them.
I will sit down now, but the time will come when you will hear me.
Man is not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from passion.
Free trade is not a principle; it is an expedient.
Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.
A very remarkable people the Zulus: they defeat our generals, they convert our bishops, they have settled the fate of a great European dynasty.
In the character of the victim [Lincoln], and even in the accessories of his last moments, there is something so homely and innocent that it takes the question, as it were, out of all the pomp of history and the ceremonial of diplomacy—it touches the heart of nations and appeals to the domestic sentiment of mankind.
I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfilment.
The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.
He has not a single redeeming defect.
In a progressive country change is constant; and the great question is not whether you should resist change which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, the customs, the laws and the traditions of a people, or whether it should be carried out in deference to abstract principles, and arbitrary and general doctrines.
"My idea of an agreeable person," said Hugo Bohun, "is a person who agrees with me."
In death he remains as he was in life. All show with no substance.
In polit nothing is contemptible.
Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
Yes, I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole.
For nearly five years the present Ministers have harassed every trade, worried every profession, and assailed or menaced every class, institution, and species of property in the country. Occasionally they have varied this state of civil warfare by perpetrating some job which outraged public opinion, or by stumbling into mistakes which have been always discreditable, and sometimes ruinous. All this they call a policy, and seem quite proud of it; but the country has, I think, made up its mind to close this career of plundering and blundering.
His shortcoming is his long staying.
"What is care?" asked the Princess, with a smile.
"It is a god", replied the Physician, "invisible, but omnipotent. It steals the bloom from the cheek and lightness from the pulse — it takes away the appetite, and turns the hair grey".