Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881)
British politician, novelist, and essayist, serving twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The sweet simplicity of the three per cents.
The noble lord in this case, as in so many others, first destroys his opponent, and then destroys his own position afterwards. The noble lord is the Prince Rupert of parliamentary discussion: his charge is resistless, but when he returns from the pursuit he always finds his camp in the possession of the enemy.
The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.
The harebrained chatter of irresponsible frivolity.
That fatal drollery called a representative government.
Finality, Sir, is not the language of politics.
London is a modern Babylon.
Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
It is knowledge that influences and equalises the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal.
Charles Greville was the most conceited person with whom I have ever been brought in contact, though I have read Cicero and known Bulwer-Lytton.
The right honourable gentleman is reminiscent of a poker. The only difference is that a poker gives off the occasional signs of warmth. (On Robert Peel).
In whatever he has written he has affected something which has been intended to strike his readers as uncommon and therefore grand. Because he has been bright and a man of genius, he has carried his object as regards the young. He has struck them with astonishment and aroused in their imagination ideas of a world more glorious, more rich, more witty, more enterprising, than their own. But the glory has been the glory of pasteboard, and the wealth has been a wealth of tinsel. The wit has been the wit of hairdressers, and the enterprise has been the enterprise of mountebanks.
Never take anything for granted.
We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.
There is moderation even in excess.
The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
...a man who is never beaten. Every reverse, every defeat is to him only an admonition to wait and catch his opportunity of retrieving his position.
The characteristic of the present age is craving credulity.
Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.
Many thanks: I shall lose no time in reading it.