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Benjamin Disraeli
303 quotes
“Then there was a maiden speech, so inaudible, that it was doubted whether, after all, the young orator really did lose his virginity.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are indeed a nation of shopkeepers.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It destroys one's nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The age of chivalry is past. Bores have succeeded to dragons.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Teach us that wealth is not elegance; that profusion is not magnificence; and that splendour is not beauty. Teach us that taste is a talisman which can do greater wonders than the millions of the loanmonger. Teach us that to vie is not to rival, and to imitate not to invent. Teach us that pretension is a bore. Teach us that wit is excessively good-natured, and, like champagne, not only sparkles, but is sweet. Teach us the vulgarity of malignity. Teach us that envy spoils our complexions, and that anxiety destroys our figure.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a man be gloomy, let him keep to himself. No one has a right to go croaking about society, or, what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature is more powerful than education; time will develop everything.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never apologize for showing feeling, my friend. Remember that when you do so, you apologize for truth.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With words we govern men.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Amusement to an observing mind is study.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sense of existence is the greatest happiness.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Benjamin Disraeli (earl Beaconsfield)
“The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Time is the great physician.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man is not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from passion.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not ashamed or afraid to say that I wish more sympathy had been shown on both sides towards the Chartists... I am not ashamed to say that I sympathise with millions of my fellow-subjects.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (28 January 1840), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 485
“I entirely agree with you, that an union between the Conservative party and the Radical masses offers the only means by which we can preserve the Empire. Their interests are identical; united they form the nation; and their division has only permitted a miserable minority, under the specious name of the People, to assail all rights of property and person. Since I first entered public life, now eight years ago, I have worked for no other object and no other end than to aid the formation of a national party.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Charles Attwood (7 June 1840), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 486
“Free trade is not a principle; it is an expedient.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Import Duties (25 April 1843). Compare: "It is a condition which confronts us, not a theory" (Grover Cleveland, Annual Message, 1887, in reference to the tariff); "Protection is not a principle but an expedient" (bel…
Also quoted by: Benjamin Disraeli (earl Beaconsfield)
“The principle of the feudal system, the principle which was practically operated upon, was the noblest principle, the grandest, the most magnificent and benevolent that was ever conceived by sage, or ever practised by patriot.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Shrewsbury (9 May 1843), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume I, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 51
“I believe the landed interest should be the basis of our political and social system.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Shrewsbury (9 May 1843), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume I, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 55
“That dense population in extreme distress inhabited an island where there was an established church which was not their church; and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom lived in distant capitals. Thus they had a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien Church, and, in addition, the weakest executive in the world. That was the Irish question.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (16 February 1844)
“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.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (24 April 1844), referring to Lord Stanley; compare: "The brilliant chief, irregularly great, / Frank, haughty, rash,—the Rupert of debate!", Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The New Timon (1846), Pa…
“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.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Value of Literature to Men of Business," speech at the Manchester Athenaeum (23 October 1844), cited in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Vol. 2 (1882), p. 625
“London owes everything to its press: it owes as much to its press as it does to its being the seat of government and the law.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the Printing Trade Festival (1845)
“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.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the Printing Trade Festival (1845)
“The right hon. Gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal position, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (28 February 1845), referring to Sir Robert Peel.
“Protection is not a principle, but an expedient.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (17 March 1845)
“Something has risen up in this country as fatal in the political world as it has been in the landed world of Ireland—we have a great Parliamentary middleman. It is well known what a middleman is; he is a man who bamboozles one party, and plunders the other, till, having obtained a position to which he is not entitled, he cries out, "Let us have no party questions, but fixity of tenure.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (11 April 1845)
“That is the fourth course, which in future I trust the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Peel) will not forget. The right hon. Gentleman tells us to go back to precedents; with him a great measure is always founded on a small precedent. He traces the steam-engine always back to the tea-kettle. His precedents are generally tea-kettle precedents.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (11 April 1845)
“Sir, very few people reach posterity. Who amongst us may arrive at that destination I presume not to vaticinate. Posterity is a most limited assembly. Those gentlemen who reach posterity are not much more numerous than the planets.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (22 January 1846)
“Above all, maintain the line of demarcation between parties; for it is only by maintaining the independence of party that you can maintain the integrity of public men, and the power and influence of Parliament itself.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (22 January 1846), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume I, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 110
“He is so vain that he wants to figure in history as the settler of all the great questions; but a Parliamentary constitution is not favorable to such ambitions; things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord John Manners, referring to the tactics of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel (17 December 1846), cited in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfiel…
“All is race; there is no other truth.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tancred; or, The New Crusade (1847), Vol. I, Ch. XX: A Modern Troubadour, p. 191
“In the great struggle between popular principles and liberal opinions, which is the characteristic of our age, I hope ever to be found on the side of the people, and of the Institutions, of England. It is our Institutions that have made us free, and can alone keep us so; by the bulwark which they offer to the insidious encroachments of a convenient, yet enervating, system of centralisation, which, if left unchecked, will prove fatal to the national character.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the electors of Buckinghamshire (25 May 1847), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 837
“It is unnecessary for me to state that I shall support all those measures, the object of which is to elevate the moral and social condition of the Working Classes, by lessening their hours of toil—by improving their means of health—and by cultivating their intelligence. These are objects which, it is not unpleasing for me to remember, I endeavoured, in common with some of my friends, to advance, before they engaged the attention of Governments, or were supported by triumphant Parliamentary majorities.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the electors of Buckinghamshire (25 May 1847), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 838
“The palace is not safe, when the cottage is not happy.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Wynyard Horticultural Show (1848), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 709
“I entirely differ with the Government as to the value of precedents. In this case, as in others, precedents are not mere dusty phrases, which do not substantially affect the question before us. A precedent embalms a principle.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (22 February 1848)
“My objection to Liberalism is this—that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind—namely, politics—of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (5 June 1848)
“The hon. Gentleman has said, in a most extraordinary manner, that our security for peace at the present day is the desire of nations to keep at home. There is a great difference between nationality and race. Nationality is the principle of political independence. Race is the principle of physical analogy, and you have at this moment the principle of race—not at all of nationality—adopted by Germany, the very country to which the hon. Member for the West Riding referred.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (9 August 1848)
“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 that scheme of government which, in my opinion, has made this country great, and which I hope will keep it great.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (30 August 1848)
“The office of leader of the Conservative party in the H[ouse] of C[ommons], at the present day, is to uphold the aristocratic settlement of this country. That is the only question at stake, however manifold may be the forms wh[ich] it assumes in public discussion.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord Stanley (26 December 1848), quoted in Benjamin Disraeli Letters, Volume Five 1848–1851, eds. M. G. Wiebe, J. B. Conacher, John Matthews and Mary S. Miller (1993), p. 118