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All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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All My Successes Have

Benjamin Disraeli

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All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

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Failure Inspirational

More From Benjamin Disraeli

We Can Know Nothing Of Humankind Without Knowing Something Of Ourselves. Self-knowledge Is The Property Of Those People Whose Passions Have Their Full Play, But Who Ponder Over Their Results.

The Praise Of A Fool Is Incense To The Wisest Of Us . . .

To Be Conscious That You Are Ignorant Of The Facts Is A Great Step To Knowledge.

A Person's Fate Is Their Own Temper.

If You Don't Believe In Magic, Then You Can't Believe In Reality.

Coquettes Are, But Too Rare. It Is A Career That Requires Great Abilities, Infinite Pains, A Gay And Airy Spirit. 't Is The Coquette Who Provides All The Amusements,--suggests The Riding-party, Plans The Picnic, Gives And Guesses Charades, Acts Them. She Is The Stirring Element Amid The Heavy Congeries Of Social Atoms,--the Soul Of The House, The Salt Of The Banquet.

Without Dancing You Can Never Attain A Perfectly Graceful Carriage, Which Is Of The Highest Importance In Life.

You Must Not Contrast Too Strongly The Hours Of Courtship With The Years Of Possession.

I Do Not Like Giving Advice: It Is Incurring An Unnecessary Responsibility.

Through Persistence Numerous Individuals Win Accomplishment Out Of What Appeared Bound To Be Sure Disappointment.

Customs May Not Be As Wise As Laws, But They Are Always More Popular.

Something Unpleasant Is Coming When Men Are Anxious To Tell The Truth.

To Supervise People, You Must Either Surpass Them In Their Accomplishments Or Despise Them.

Life Is Too Short To Be Little.

You Asked Me Where I Generally Lived. In My Workshop [i.e. In His Study] In The Mornings And Always In The Library In The Evening. Books Are Companions Even If You Don’t Open Them.

Great Revolutions, Whatever May Be Their Causes, Are Not Lightly Commenced, And Are Not Concluded With Precipitation.

The Most Powerful Men Are Not Public Men: A Public Man Is Responsible, And A Responsible Man Is A Slave. It Is Private Life That Governs The World.

Perseverance And Tact Are The Two Great Qualities Most Valuable For All Those Who Would Climb, But Especially For Those Who Have To Step Out Of The Crowd.

A Beautiful Hand Is An Excellent Thing In Woman; It Is A Charm That Never Palls; And Better Than All, It Is A Means Of Fascinating That Never Disappears.

The Right Hon. Gentleman [sir Robert Peel] Caught The Whigs Bathing, And Walked Away With Their Clothes.

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.

Great Services Are Not Canceled By One Act Or By One Single Error.

Nature, Like Man, Sometimes Weeps From Gladness.

As A General Rule, Nobody Has Money Who Ought To Have It.

He Was Distinguished For Ignorance; For He Had Only One Idea, And That Was Wrong.

Nurture Your Minds With Great Thoughts. To Believe In The Heroic Makes Heroes.

Beware Of Endeavoring To Become A Great Man In A Hurry. One Such Attempt In Ten Thousand May Succeed. These Are Fearful Odds.

Knowledge Must Be Gained By Ourselves. Mankind May Supply Us With Facts; But The Results, Even If They Agree With Previous Ones, Must Be The Work Of Our Own Minds.

Some Will Read Only Old Books, As If There Were No Valuable Truths To Be Discovered In Modern Publications: Others Will Only Read New Books, As If Some Valuable Truths Are Not Among The Old. Some Will Not Read A Book Because They Know The Author: Others . . . Would Also Read The Man.

No One For A Moment Can Pretend That Printing Is So Great A Discovery As Writing, Or Algebra As A Language.

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.

Gentlemen, The Tory Party, Unless It Is A National Party, Is Nothing.

You Know Who The Critics Are? The Men Who Have Failed In Literature And Art.

Trust Not Overmuch To The Blessed Magdalen; Learn To Protect Yourself.

Protect Yourself

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 Which Will Stake Even Existence Upon Its Fulfillment.

Books Are The Curse Of The Human Race.

We Have Legalized Confiscation, Consecrated Sacrilege, And Condoned High Treason.

The Eyes Of The Social Herd, Who Always Observe Little Things, And Generally Form From Them Their Opinions Of Great Affairs.

The Characteristic Of The Present Age Is Craving Credulity.

Characteristics

Turtle Makes All Men Equal.

The Duke Of Wellington Brought To The Post Of First Minister Immortal Fame,-a Quality Of Success Which Would Almost Seem To Include All Others.

A Sophisticated Rhetorician, Inebriated With The Exuberance Of His Own Verbosity.

You Know, All Is Development. The Principle Is Perpetually Going On. First, There Was Nothing, Then There Was Something; Then-i Forget The Next-i Think There Were Shells, Then Fishes; Then We Came-let Me See-did We Come Next? Never Mind That; We Came At Last. And At The Next Change There Will Be Something Very Superior To Us-something With Wings. Ah! That's It: We Were Fishes, And I Believe We Shall Be Crows.

Circumstances Are Beyond Human Control, But Our Conduct Is In Our Own Power.

Whenever You See A Man Who Is Successful In Society, Try To Discover What Makes Him Pleasing, And If Possible Adopt His System.

The World Is Ruled By Other People, Than People Believe To Know.

The Governments Of The Present Day Have To Deal Not Merely With Other Governments, With Emperors, Kings And Ministers, But Also With The Secret Societies Which Have Everywhere Their Unscrupulous Agents, And Can At The Last Moment Upset All The Governments' Plans.

World Government

Things Must Be Done By Parties, Not By Persons Using Parties As Tools.

Upon The Education Of The People Of This Country The Fate Of This Country Depends.

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.

Those Who Cannot Themselves Observe Can At Least Acquire The Observation Of Others.

I Rather Like Bad Wine; One Gets So Bored With Good Wine.

It Was Not Reason That Besieged Troy; It Was Not Reason That Sent Forth The Saracen From The Desert To Conquer The World; That Inspired The Crusades; That Instituted The Monastic Orders; It Was Not Reason That Produced The Jesuits; Above All, It Was Not Reason That Created The French Revolution. Man Is Only Great When He Acts From The Passions; Never Irresistible But When He Appeals To The Imagination.

Conquer The World

Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

Failure Inspirational

Without Tact You Can Learn Nothing.

The Constitution Of England Is Not A Paper Constitution. It Is An Aggregate Of Institutions, Many Of Them Founded Merely Upon Prescription, Some Of Them Fortified By Muniments, But All Of Them The Fruit And Experience Of An Ancient And Illustrious People.

What We Call The Heart Is A Nervous Sensation, Like Shyness, Which Gradually Disappears In Society. It Is Fervent In The Nursery, Strong In The Domestic Circle, Tumultuous At School.

The Feathered Arrow Of Satire Has Oft Been Wet With The Heart's Blood Of Its Victims.

Great Men Should Think Of Opportunity And Not Of Time. That Is The Excuse Of Feeble And Puzzled Spirits.

Had It Not Been For You, I Should Have Remained What I Was When We First Met, A Prejudiced, Narrow-minded Being, With Contracted Sympathies And False Knowledge, Wasting My Life On Obsolete Trifles, And Utterly Insensible To The Privilege Of Living In This Wondrous Age Of Change And Progress.

Patriotism Depends As Much On Mutual Suffering As On Mutual Success; And It Is By That Experience Of All Fortunes And All Feelings That A Great National Character Is Created.

Nobody Is Forgotten, When It Is Convenient To Remember Him.

Individuals May Form Communities, But It Is Institutions Alone That Can Create A Nation.

We Are Indeed A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

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.

When Men Are Pure, Laws Are Useless; When Men Are Corrupt, Laws Are Broken.

What Are The Most Brilliant Of Our Chymical Discoveries Compared With The Invention Of Fire And The Metals?

All Of Us Encounter, At Least Once In Our Life, Some Individual Who Utters Words That Make Us Think Forever. There Are Men Whose Phrases Are Oracles; Who Condense In One Sentence The Secrets Of Life; Who Blurt Out An Aphorism That Forms A Character Or Illustrates An Existence.

I Am Prepared For The Worst, But Hope For The Best.

Demagogues And Agitators Are Very Unpleasant, They Are Incidental To A Free And Constitutional Country, And You Must Put Up With These Inconveniences Or Do Without Many Important Advantages.

There Are Few Positions Less Inspiriting Than Those Of A Discomfited Party.

We Make Our Fortunes And We Call Them Fate.

News Is That Which Comes From The North, East, West And South, And If It Comes From Only One Point On The Compass, Then It Is A Class; Publication And Not News.

It Is Remarkable That When Great Discoveries Are Effected, Their Simplicity Always Seems To Detract From Their Originality: On These Occasions We Are Reminded Of The Egg Of Columbus!

The Art Of Governing Mankind By Deceiving Them.

Everything Comes If A Man Will Only Wait.

Man Is A Being Born To Believe. And If No Church Comes Forward With Its Title-deeds Of Truth To Guide Him, He Will Find Altars And Idols In His Own Heart And His Own Imagination.

No Man Is Regular In His Attendance At The House Of Commons Until He Is Married.

Life Is To Short To Be Small.

How Very Seldom Do You Encounter In The World A Man Of Great Abilities, Acquirements, Experience, Who Will Unmask His Mind, Unbutton His Brains, And Pour Forth In Careless And Picturesque Phrase All The Results Of His Studies And Observation; His Knowledge Of Men, Books, And Nature. On The Contrary, If A Man Has By Any Chance An Original Idea, He Hoards It As If It Were Old Gold; And Rather Avoids The Subject With Which He Is Most Conversant, From Fear That You May Appropriate His Best Thoughts.

Extreme Views Are Never Just; Something Always Turns Up Which Disturbs The Calculations Formed Upon Their Data.

Why, I Say, That To Tax The Community For The Advantage Of A Class Is Not Protection; It Is Plunder, And I Entirely Disclaim It; But I Ask You To Protect The Rights And Interests Of Labour Generally In The First Place, By Allowing No Free Imports From Countries Which Meet You With Countervailing Duties; And, In The Second Place, With Respect To Agricultural Produce, To Compensate The Soil For The Burdens From Which Other Classes Are Free By An Equivalent Duty. This Is My View Of What Is Called "protection."

As We Retain But A Faint Remembrance Of Our Felicity, It Is But Fair That The Smartest Stroke Of Sorrow Should, If Bitter, At Least Be Brief.

War Is Never A Solution; It Is An Aggravation.

The English Nation Is Never So Great As In Adversity.

Bore: One Who Has The Power Of Speech But Not The Capacity For Conversation.

I Believe Absence Is A Great Element Of Charm.

Variety Is The Mother Of Enjoyment.

Nobody Should Ever Look Anxious Except Those Who Have No Anxiety.

Apologies Only Account For That Which They Do Not Alter.

The World Is Governed By Personalities Very Different To What People That Cannot See Further Than Their Eyes, Believe

There Is No Waste Of Time Like Making Excuses.

Diligence Is The Mother Of Good Fortune.

The Health Of The People Is Really The Foundation Upon Which All Their Happiness And All Their Powers As A State Depend.

Nine-tenths Of All Existing Books Are Nonsense.

No, It Is Better Not. She Will Only Ask Me To Take A Message To Albert.

As A Rule, He Or She Who Has The Most Information Will Have The Greatest Success In Life.

Congratulations

Through Perseverance Many People Win Success Out Of What Seemed Destined To Be Certain Failure.

My Idea Of An Acceptable Person Is Someone That Is Ready To Accept My Ideas.

Moderation Has Been Called A Virtue To Limit The Ambition Of Great Men, And To Console Undistinguished People For Their Want Of Fortune And Their Lack Of Merit.

This Is The Third Time That, In The Course Of Six Years, During Which I Have Had The Lead Of The Opposition In The House Of Commons, I Have Stormed The Treasury Benches: Twice, Fruitlessly, The Third Time With A Tin Kettle To My Tail Which Rendered The Race Hopeless. You Cannot, Therefore, Be Surprised, That I Am A Little Wearied Of These Barren Victories, Which Like Alma, Inkerman, And Balaclava, May Be Glorious But Are Certainly Nothing More.

Party Is Organized Opinion.

Almost Everything That Is Great Has Been Done By Youth.

Poverty Has Its Duties As Well As Its Rights.

The Delight Of Opening A New Pursuit, Or A New Course Of Reading, Imparts The Vivacity And Novelty Of Youth Even To Old Age.

The World Is A Wheel, And It Will All Come Round Right.

Lord Salisbury And Myself Have Brought You Back Peace--but A Peace I Hope With Honour.

Like All Great Travellers, I Have Seen More Than I Remember, And Remember More Than I Have Seen.

The Secret Of Success Is Constancy To Purpose.

The Choicest Pleasures Of Life Lie Within The Ring Of Moderation.

Were It Not For Music, We Might In These Days Say, The Beautiful Is Dead.

There Are Some Silent People Who Are More Interesting Than The Best Talkers.

Everyone Likes Flattery; And When You Come To Royalty You Should Lay It On With A Trowel.

The Care Of The Public Health Is The First Duty Of The Statesman.

A Precedent Embalms A Principle.

Women Carry A Beautiful Hand With Them To The Grave, When A Beautiful Face Has Long Ago Vanished.

Destiny Bears Us To Our Lot, And Destiny Is Perhaps Our Own Will.

You Behold A Range Of Exhausted Volcanoes. Not A Flame Flickers On A Single Pallid Crest.

No Conjunction Can Possibly Occur, However Fearful, However Tremendous It May Appear, From Which A Man By His Own Energy May Not Extricate Himself, As A Mariner By The Rattling Of His Cannon Can Dissipate The Impending Waterspout.

No Government Can Be Long Secure Without A Formidable Opposition.

More Pernicious Nonsense Was Never Devised By Man Than Treaties Of Commerce.

As A Rule, Man Is A Fool. When It's Hot, He Wants It Cool; When Its Cool, He Wants It Hot. Always Wanting, What Is Not.

Duty Cannot Exist Without Faith

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.

Power Has Only One Duty - To Secure The Social Welfare Of The People.

Welfare Programs

Lady Lytton Rules Her Husband, But That I Suppose Is Always The Case Where Marriages Are What Is Called 'happy'.

Great Men Never Require Experience.

Talk To A Man About Himself And He Will Listen For Hours.

The Press Is Not Only Free, It Is Powerful. That Power Is Ours. It Is The Proudest That Man Can Enjoy.

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.

At Present The Peace Of The World Has Been Preserved, Not By Statesmen, But By Capitalists.

The Egremonts Had Never Said Anything That Was Remembered, Or Done Anything That Could Be Recalled.

Information Upon Points Of Practical Politics.

Patience Is A Necessary Ingredient Of Genius.

The Affections Are The Children Of Ignorance; When The Horizon Of Our Experience Expands, And Models Multiply, Love And Admiration Imperceptibly Vanish.

Courage Is Fire, And Bullying Is Smoke.

Luck Is What A Capricious Man Believes In.

The Magic Of First Love Is Our Ignorance That It Can Ever End.

What Art Was To The Ancient World, Science Is To The Modern; The Distinctive Faculty. In The Minds Of Men, The Useful Has Succeeded To The Beautiful.

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

If Confidence Is A Plant Of Slow Growth, Credit Is One Which Matures Much More Slowly.

That Earliest Shock In One's Life Which Occurs To All Of Us; Which First Makes Us Think.

No Affection And A Great Brain, These Are The People To Command The World.

Man Is Only Great When He Acts From Passion.

We Cannot Learn Men From Books.

Jews Show So Near An Affinity To You... Where Is Your Christianity If You Do Not Believe In Their Judaism?

Ignorance Never Settles A Question.

The Palace Is Not Safe When The Cottage Is Not Happy.

Modern Science Has Vindicated The Natural Equality Of Man.

I Do Not Understand How An Aristocracy Can Exist, Unless It Be Distinguished By Some Quality Which No Other Class Of The Community Possesses.

I Think That An Author Who Speaks About His Own Books Is Almost As Bad As A Mother Who Talks About Her Own Children.

Sweet Is The Voice Of A Sister In The Season Of Sorrow.

With Words We Govern Men.

The Indulgence In Grief Is A Blunder.

The Athanasian Creed Is The Most Splendid Ecclesiastical Lyric Ever Poured Forth By The Genius Of Man.

All Power Is A Trust, That We Are Accountable For Its Exercise.

There Is Magic In The Memory Of Schoolboy Friendships; It Softens The Heart, And Even Affects The Nervous System Of Those Who Have No Heart.

It Is Well-known What A Middleman Is: He Is A Man Who Bamboozles One Party And Plunders The Other.

I Repeat... That All Power Is A Trust; That We Are Accountable For Its Exercise; That From The People And For The People All Springs, And All Must Exist.

The Character Of A Woman Rapidly Develops After Marriage, And Sometimes Seems To Change, When In Fact It Is Only Complete.

Man Is Only Truly Great When He Acts From The Passions; Never Irresistible But When He Appeals To The Imagination.

How Fair Is A Garden Amid The Toils And Passions Of Existence.

I Was Told That The Privileged And The People Formed Two Nations.

The World Is Weary Of Statesmen Whom Democracy Has Degraded Into Politicians.

Democracies Have

Let The Fear Of A Danger Be A Spur To Prevent It; He That Fears Not, Gives Advantage To The Danger.

The Youth Of A Nation Are The Trustees Of Posterity.

Nonsense, When Earnest, Is Impressive, And Sometimes Takes You In. If You Are In A Hurry, You Occasionally Mistake It For Sense.

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

The Sympathy Of Sorrow Is Stronger Than The Sympathy Of Prosperity.

If You're Not Very Clever You Should Be Conciliatory.

The Pursuit Of Science Leads Only To The Insoluble.

I Am A Conservative To Preserve All That Is Good In Our Constitution, A Radical To Remove All That Is Bad. I Seek To Preserve Property And To Respect Order, And I Equally Decry The Appeal To The Passions Of The Many Or The Prejudices Of The Few.

There Is No Greater Sin Than To Be Trop Prononce.

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.

An Obedient Wife Commands Her Husband.

Nothing In Life Is More Remarkable Than The Unnecessary Anxiety Which We Endure, And Generally Create Ourselves.

Those Authors Who Appear Sometimes To Forget They Are Writers, And Remember They Are Men, Will Be Our Favorites.

In The Hands Of A Genius, Engineering Turns To Magic, Philosophy Becomes Poetry, And Science Pure Imagination.

The Italians Say It Is Not Necessary To Be A Stag; But We Ought Not To Be A Tortoise.

The Profound Thinker Always Suspects That He Is Superficial.

That Fatal Drollery Called A Representative Government.

Representatives

Representative Government

You Will In Due Season Find Your Property Is Less Valuable, And Your Freedom Less Complete.

Seeing Much, Suffering Much, And Studying Much, Are The Three Pillars Of Learning.

Amusement To An Observing Mind Is Study.

I Must Follow The People. Am I Not Their Leader?

I Say That Justice Is Truth In Action.

"as For That," Said Waldenshare, "sensible Men Are All Of The Same Religion." "pray, What Is That?" Inquired The Prince. "sensible Men Never Tell."

Christianity Is Completed Judaism Or It Is Nothing.

In The Study Of The Fine Arts, They Mutually Assist Each Other.

Life Is Too Short To Be Little. Man Is Never So Manly As When He Feels Deeply, Acts Boldly, And Expresses Himself With Frankness And With Fervour.

Life Is Too Short

England Does Not Love Coalitions.

How Much Easier It Is To Be Critical Than To Be Correct.

Positive Thinking

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.

Popular Privileges Are Consistent With A State Of Society In Which There Is Great Inequality Of Position. Democratic Rights, On The Contrary, Demand That There Should Be Equality Of Condition As The Fundamental Basis Of The Society They Regulate.

Characters Do Not Change. Opinions Alter, But Characters Are Only Developed.

Principle Is Ever My Motto, No Expediency.

One Event Makes Another. What We Anticipate Seldom Occurs; What We Least Expected Generally Happens; And Time Can Only Prove Which Is Most For Our Advantage.

Departure Should Be Sudden.

In Great Cities Men Are Brought Together By The Desire Of Gain. They Are Not In A State Of Co-operation, But Of Isolation, As To The Making Of Fortunes; And For All The Rest They Are Careless Of Neighbors.

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