Disraeli Quotes

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

"As for that," said Waldenshare, "sensible men are all of the same religion." "Pray, what is that?" inquired the Prince. "Sensible men never tell." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

A great thing is a great book; but a greater thing than all is the talk of a great man. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The divine right of kings may have been a plea for feeble tyrants, but the divine right of government is the keystone of human progress, and without it governments sink into police, and a nation is degraded into a mob. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

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

Ah, Ireland ... That damnable, delightful country, where everything that is right is the opposite of what it ought to be. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Justice is truth in action. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Luck is what a capricious man believes in. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Friendship is the gift of the gods, and the most precious boon to man. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Happy the man when he has not the defects of his qualities. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

We are now in want of an art to teach how books are to be read rather than to read them. Such an art is practicable. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A good eater must be a good man; for a good eater must have a good digestion, and a good digestion depends upon a good conscience. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Do not read history. Read biography for it is life without theory. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

If the golden gate of preferment is not usually opened to men of real merit, persons of no worth have entered it in a most extraordinary manner. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

There is a thread in our thoughts as there is a pulse in our feelings; he who can hold the one knows how to think, and he who can move the other knows how to feel. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The fruit of my tree of knowledge is plucked, and it is this: "Adventures are to the adventurous." ~ Benjamin Disraeli

She is an excellent creature, but she can never remember which came first, the Greeks or the Romans. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Every moment is travel - if understood. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

If Gladstone fell in the Thames, that would be a misfortune. But if someone fished him out again, that would be a calamity. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The poet and the painter are only truly great by the mutual influences of their studies, and the jealousy of glory has only produced an idle contest. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

All my successes have been built on my failures. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A poet is a painter of the soul. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

Bore: one who has the power of speech but not the capacity for conversation. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

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. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The canter is a cure for every evil. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Female friendships are of rapid growth. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves - the creature of habits and infirmities. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

Quit the world, and the world forgets you. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Scientific, like spiritual truth, has ever from the beginning been descending from heaven to man. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A nation will not count the sacrifice it makes, if it supposes it is engaged in a struggle for its fame, its influence and its existence. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

You cannot choose between party government and Parliamentary government. I say you can have no Parliamentary government if you have no party government; and therefore when gentlemen denounce party government, they strike at the scheme of government which, in my opinion, has made this country great, and which, I hope, will keep it great. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

It destroys one's nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

When those of Jewish blood exhibit moral or intellectual superiority, genius or special talent, we feel pride in them, even if they have abjured the faith like Spinoza, Marx, Disraeli or Heine. Despite the meditations of pundits or the decrees of council, our own instincts and acts, and those of others, have defined for us the term 'Jew.' ~ Louis D. Brandeis

There can be economy only where there is efficiency. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in the enthusiasm of genius. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

He who gains time gains everything. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The stage is a supplement to the pulpit, where virtue, according to Plato's sublime idea, moves our love and affection when made visible to the eye. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A 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

The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Little things affect little minds. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Never take anything for granted. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

That doctrine of peace at any price has done more mischief than any I can well recall that have been afloat in this country. It has occasioned more wars than any of the most ruthless conquerors. It has disturbed and nearly destroyed that political equilibrium so necessary to the liberties and the welfare of the world. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

To be famous when you are young is the fortune of the gods. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The tone and tendency of liberalism ... is to attack the institutions of the country under the name of reform and to make war on the manners and customs of the people under the pretext of progress. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Without tact you can learn nothing. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

People are defeated by easy, victorious and cheap successes more than by adversity. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The expected always happens ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Man is more powerful than matter. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The pursuit of science leads only to the insoluble. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Disraeli was now at the height of his fame and popularity. He still had his enemies ... But the people as a whole now admired and respected him deeply ... His unscrupulous past and cynical opportunism were being largely forgotten or forgiven. He was gradually becoming recognized not only as the prophet of a new Conservatism, at once compassionate at home and positive abroad, but as a great statesmen whom the Queen did well to honour. Power had brought responsibility. By 1878 the transformation in public attitudes towards Disraeli was complete. ~ Christopher Hibbert

Free trade is not a principle, it is an expedient. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The art of governing mankind by deceiving them. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Twilight makes us pensive; Aurora is the goddess of activity; despair curses at midnight; hope blesses at noon. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

O Music! Miraculous art! A blast of thy trumpet and millions rush forward to die; a peal of thy organ and uncounted nations sink down to pray. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The first favourite was never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after the distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A well-read writer, with good taste, is one who has the command of the wit of other men; he searches where knowledge is to be found; and though he may not himself excel in invention, his ingenuity may compose one of those agreeable books, the deliciae of literature, that will out-last the fading meteors of his day. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Religion is civilization, the highest. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Mr Speaker, I withdraw my statement that half the cabinet are asses - half the cabinet are not asses. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

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

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The originality of a subject is in its treatment. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Great collections of books are subject to certain accidents besides the damp, the worms, and the rats; one not less common is that of the borrowers, not to say a word of the purloiners ~ Isaac D'Israeli

It does not at first appear that an astronomer rapt in abstraction, while he gazes on a star, must feel more exquisite delight than a farmer who is conducting his team. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

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

There is no gambling like politics. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

I have a great confidence in the revelations which holidays bring forth. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

If you're not very clever you should be conciliatory. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Meditation is culture. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Assassination has never changed the history of the world. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Life is too short to be little. You must enlarge your imagination and then act on it. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, enthusiasm is the true part of genius. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

London is a modern Babylon. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be criticised. ~ Isaac D'Israeli

There is no index of character as sure as the voice. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Other men condemned to exile and captivity, if they survive, despair; the man of letters may reckon those days as the sweetest of his life ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Fame has eagle wings, and yet she mounts not so high as man's desires. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Is it what you call civilization that makes England flourish? Is it the universal development of the faculties of man that has rendered an island, almost unknown to the ancients, the
arbiter of the world? Clearly not. It is the inhabitants that have done this. It is an affair of race ... All is race, there is no other truth. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

There's three kinds of lies in this world:
There's lies ...
There's damned lies ...
And there's statistics ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Apologies only account for that which they do not alter. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A Protestant, if he wants aid or advice on any matter, can only go to his solicitor. ~ Benjamin Disraeli