Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Benjamin Disraeli
303 quotes
“None are so interested in maintaining the institutions of the country as the working classes. The rich and the powerful will not find much difficulty under any circumstances in maintaining their rights, but the privileges of the people can only be defended and secured by popular institutions.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to a working men's club (1867), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 297
“This is to be observed of the Bishop of London, that, though apparently of a spirit somewhat austere, there is in his idiosyncrasy a strange fund of enthusiasm, a quality which ought never to be possessed by an Archbishop of Canterbury, or a Prime Minister of England. The Bishop of London sympathies with everything that is earnest; but what is earnest is not always true; on the contrary error is often more earnest than truth.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Referring to Frederick Temple, letter to Queen Victoria (4 November 1868), cited in The Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd series) (1926), ed. George Earle Buckle, p. 550
“There can be no economy where there is no efficiency.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Constituents (3 October 1868), cited in Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Collected from his Writings and Speeches (1881), p. 110
“Nobody is forgotten, when it is convenient to remember him.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord Stanhope (17 July 1870), cited in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, Vol. 5 (1920), p. 123-125
“I think the author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at banquet given by the city of Glasgow to Disraeli on his inauguration as Lord Rector of Glasgow University (19 November 1870), cited in Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Collected from his Writings and Speec…
“That is an apology, not an explanation; and apologies only account for that which they do not alter.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (28 July 1871)
“Without publicity there can be no public spirit, and without public spirit every nation must decay.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (8 August 1871)
“Gentlemen, the programme of the Conservative party is to maintain the Constitution of the country.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 491
“Gentlemen, I am a party man. I believe that, without party, Parliamentary government is impossible. I look upon Parliamentary government as the noblest government in the world, and certainly the one most suited to England.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), pp. 492-493
“I confess I am inclined to believe that an English gentleman—born to business, managing his own estate, administering the affairs of his county, mixing with all classes of his fellow-men, now in the hunting field, now in the railway direction, unaffected, un-ostentatious, proud of his ancestors, if they have contributed to the greatness of our common country—is, on the whole, more likely to form a senator agreeable to the English opinion and English taste than any substitute that has yet been produced.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 499
“Religious education is demanded by the nation generally and by the instincts of human nature.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 505
“And now, gentlemen, what is the condition of the great body of the people? In the first place, gentlemen, they have for centuries been in the full enjoyment of that which no other country in Europe has ever completely attained—complete rights of personal freedom.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 507
“Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 507
Also quoted by: Benjamin Disraeli (earl Beaconsfield)
“I beg to express my opinion that an agricultural labourer has as much right to combine for the bettering of his condition as a manufacturing labourer or worker in metals. If the causes of his combination are natural—that is to say, if they arise from his own feelings and from the necessities of his own condition, the combination will end in results mutually beneficial to employers and employed.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), pp. 507-508
“Pure air, pure water, the inspection of unhealthy habitations, the adulteration of food, these and many kindred matters may be legitimately dealt with by the Legislature... After all, the first consideration of a minister should be the health of the people.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), pp. 511-512
“The very phrase "foreign affairs" makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 516
“I acknowledge that the policy of England with respect to Europe should be a policy of reserve, but proud reserve; and in answer to those statesmen—those mistaken statesmen who have intimated the decay of the power of England and the decline of its resources, I express here my confident conviction that there never was a moment in our history when the power of England was so great and her resources so vast and inexhaustible.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 522
“[I]t is not merely our fleets and armies, our powerful artillery, our accumulated capital, and our unlimited credit on which I so much depend, as upon that unbroken spirit of her people, which I believe was never prouder of the Imperial country to which they belong. Gentlemen, it is to that spirit that I above all things trust.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 522
“Gentlemen, the Tory party, unless it is a national party, is nothing.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T.…
“Gentlemen, there is another and second great object of the Tory party. If the first is to maintain the institutions of the country, the second is, in my opinion, to uphold the Empire of England. If you look to the history of this country since the advent of Liberalism—forty years ago—you will find that there has been no effort so continuous, so subtle, supported by so much energy, and carried on with so much ability and acumen, as the attempts of Liberalism to effect the disintegration of the Empire of England.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T.…
“Gentlemen, another great object of the Tory party, and one not inferior to the maintenance of the Empire, or the upholding of our institutions, is the elevation of the condition of the people... It must be obvious to all who consider the condition of the multitude with a desire to improve and elevate it, that no important step can be gained unless you can effect some reduction of their hours of labour and humanise their toil. The great problem is to be able to achieve such results without violating those principles of economic truth upon which the prosperity of all States depends.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T.…
“[T]he time is at hand...when England will have to decide between national and cosmopolitan principles. The issue is not a mean one. It is whether you will be content to be a comfortable England, modelled and moulded upon Continental principles and meeting in due course an inevitable fate, or whether you will be a great country,—an Imperial country—a country where your sons, when they rise, rise to paramount positions, and obtain not merely the esteem of their countrymen, but command the respect of the world.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T.…
“You have nothing to trust to but your own energy and the sublime instinct of an ancient people. You must act as if everything depended on your individual efforts. The secret of success is constancy of purpose. Go to your homes, and teach there these truths, which will soon be imprinted on the conscience of the land. Make each man feel how much rests on his own exertions... Act in this spirit, and you will succeed. You will maintain your country in its present position. But you will do more than that, you will deliver to your posterity a land of liberty, of prosperity, of power, and of glory.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T.…
“A University should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (11 March 1873)
“You have despoiled Churches. You have threatened every corporation and endowment in the country. You have examined into everybody's affairs. You have criticized every profession and vexed every trade. No one is certain of his property, and nobody knows what duties he may have to perform tomorrow. This is the policy of confiscation as compared with that of concurrent endowment.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (11 March 1873)
“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.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1873 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord Grey de Wilton (3 October 1873), cited in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, Vol. 5 (1920), p. 262
“King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (15 June 1874)
“Whether we should have one Imperial Parliament and one Local Parliament, or whether we must have, as has just been suggested—and it will probably be the solution of many difficulties, although it will lead to greater ones—one Imperial and three Local Parliaments; one thing is quite clear—that we should end in having co-ordinate and competing authorities, and that we should find officers of State acting on policies totally distinct, and bringing about a course of affairs hostile to each other.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (2 July 1874)
“I am opposed to it because I wish to see united at an important crisis of the world—a crisis that perhaps is nearer arriving than some of us suppose—because I wish to see a united people welded in one great nationality, and because I feel that if we sanction this policy—if we do not cleanse the Parliamentary bosom of all this "perilous stuff"—we shall bring about the disintegration of the Kingdom and the destruction of the Empire.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons against Irish Home Rule (2 July 1874)
“I have always felt that the best security for civilisation is the dwelling, and that upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends more than anything else the improvement of mankind. Such dwellings are the nursery of all domestic virtues, and without a becoming home the exercise of those virtues is impossible.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the opening of Shaftesburgh Park Estate (18 July 1874), cited in Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Collected from his Writings and Speeches (1881), p. 38
“It is vital to your Majesty's authority and power at this critical moment, that the Canal should belong to England.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Queen Victoria (18 November 1875), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 783
“It is just settled: you have it, Madam. The French government has been out-generaled.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Queen Victoria on the Suez Canal (24 November 1875), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 788
“Nothing is more disgusting, than the habit of our officers speaking always of the inhabitants of India—many of them descended from the great races—as "niggers". It is ignorant, & brutal,—& surely most mischievous.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1875 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord Salisbury (13 December 1875), quoted in Michael Bentley, Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (2001), p. 224, n. 10
“It is only by the amplification of titles that you can often touch and satisfy the imagination of nations; and that is an element which Governments must not despise.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1876 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons on the Royal Titles Act that bestowed on Queen Victoria the title "Empress of India" (9 March 1876)
“I am dead: dead, but in the Elysian fields.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1876 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to Lord Aberdare on being welcomed to the House of Lords (1876), cited by Stanley Weintraub, Disraeli: A Biography (1993), p. 563
“It has been said that the people of this country are deeply interested in the humanitarian and philanthropic considerations involved in [the Eastern Question]. All must appreciate such feelings. But I am mistaken if there be not a yet deeper sentiment on the part of the people of this country, one with which I cannot doubt your lordships will ever sympathise, and that is—the determination to maintain the Empire of England.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1860 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Lords (20 February 1877), cited in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 994
“The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1877 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech of 1877-06-24
“What, then, was that policy? It was a policy of conditional neutrality. Under the circumstances of the case we did not believe that it was for the honour or interest of England or Turkey that we should take any part in the impending contest; but while we enforced the neutrality which we prepared to observe, we declared at the same time that that neutrality must cease if British interests were assailed or menaced. Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own, have denounced this policy as a selfish policy. My Lord Mayor, it is as selfish as patriotism.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1877 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the Guildhall, London (9 November 1877), quoted in The Times (10 November 1877), p. 10
“His views on all subjects are original, but there is no strain, no effort at paradox. He talks as Montaigne writes. When he heard about Cyprus, he said: "You have done a wise thing. This is progress. It will be popular; a nation likes progress." His idea of progress was evidently seizing something. He said he looked upon our relinquishment of the Ionian Isles as the first sign of our decadence. Cyprus put us all right again.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1204 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Queen Victoria on his meeting with Otto von Bismarck in Berlin (5 July 1878), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–…
“We have brought a peace, and we trust we have brought a peace with honour, and I trust that that will now be followed by the prosperity of the country.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Dover, England after arriving from the Congress of Berlin (16 July 1878), quoted in The Times (17 July 1878), p. 5
“Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace, but a peace, I hope, with honour which may satisfy our Sovereign, and tend to the welfare of the country.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From the window of 10 Downing Street, after arriving from Dover (16 July 1878), quoted in 'Return Of Lord Beaconsfield And Lord Salisbury', The Times (17 July 1878), p. 5
“Which do you believe most likely to enter an insane convention, a body of English gentlemen honoured by the favour of their Sovereign and the confidence of their fellow-subjects, managing your affairs for five years, I hope with prudence, and not altogether without success, or a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself?”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1228 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to a banquet given to him in Knightsbridge, attacking William Gladstone for calling the Cyprus Convention an "insane covenant" (27 July 1878), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Lif…
“A series of congratulatory regrets.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lord Hartington's Resolutions on the Berlin Treaty (30 July 1878)
“[T]he government of the world is carried on by Sovereigns and statesmen, and not by anonymous paragraph writers, or by the harebrained chatter of irresponsible frivolity.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1878 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the Guildhall, London (10 November 1878), quoted in The Times (11 November 1878), p. 10
“A very remarkable people the Zulus: they defeat our generals, they convert our bishops, they have settled the fate of a great European dynasty.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1879 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Upon hearing of the death of Napoléon, Prince Imperial of the House of Bonaparte in Africa (1879); cited in James Anthony Froude, Lord Beaconsfield (1890), p. 213
“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 (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“London is a roost for every bird.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The pursuit of science leads only to the insoluble.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source