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As I Sat Opposite The Treasury Bench The Ministers Reminded Me Of One Of Those Marine Landscapes Not Very Unusual On The Coasts Of South America. You Behold A Range Of Exhausted Volcanoes.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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As I Sat Opposite

Benjamin Disraeli

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As I Sat Opposite The Treasury Bench The Ministers Reminded Me Of One Of Those Marine Landscapes Not Very Unusual On The Coasts Of South America. You Behold A Range Of Exhausted Volcanoes.

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The Question Is This - Is Man An Ape Or An Angel? My Lord, I Am On The Side Of The Angels. I Repudiate With Indignation And Abhorrence These New Fanged Theories.

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

The Very Phrase 'foreign Affairs' Makes An Englishman Convinced That I Am About To Treat Of Subjects With Which He Has No Concern.

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.

A Great Thing Is A Great Book; But A Greater Thing Than All Is The Talk Of A Great Man.

There Is No Act Of Treachery Or Meanness Of Which A Political Party Is Not Capable; For In Politics There Is No Honour.

The Age Does Not Believe In Great Men, Because It Does Not Possess Any.

An Insular Country, Subject To Fogs, And With A Powerful Middle Class, Requires Grave Statesmen.

The Gondola Of London [a Hansom].

Desperation Is Sometimes As Powerful An Inspirer As Genius.

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

Free Trade Is Not A Principle, It Is An Expedient.

Finality Is Not The Language Of Politics.

Propriety Of Manners, And Consideration For Others, Are The Two Main Characteristics Of A Gentleman.

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

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

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

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

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.

Change Is As Inexorable As Time, Yet Nothing Meets With More Resistance.

It Is The Lot Of Man To Suffer; It Is Also His Fortune To Forget. Oblivion And Sorrow Share Our Being, As Darkness And Light Divide The Course Of Time.

Twilight Makes Us Pensive; Aurora Is The Goddess Of Activity; Despair Curses At Midnight; Hope Blesses At Noon.

An Author Can Have Nothing Truly His Own But His Style.

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

Beauty Can Inspire Miracles.

Despair Is The Conclusion Of Fools.

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.

The World Is Devoted To Physical Science, Because It Believes Theses Discoveries Will Increase Its Capacity Of Luxury And Self-indulgence. But The Pursuit Of Science Only Leads To The Insoluble.

People Are Defeated By Easy, Victorious And Cheap Successes More Than By Adversity.

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

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

The British People, Being Subject To Fogs, Require Grave Statesmen.

There Is No Wisdom Like Frankness.

A Consistent Soul Believes In Destiny, A Capricious One In Chance.

Meditation Is Culture.

Never Complain And Never Explain.

A Person's Fate Is Their Own Temper.

"sorry" Only Counts For That Which It Cannot Alter.

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.

Experience Is The Child Of Thought, And Thought Is The Child Of Action.

Positive Thinking

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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

He Thinks Posterity Is A Pack-horse, Always Ready To Be Loaded.

What We Anticipate Seldom Occurs; What We Least Expect Generally Happens.

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

My Idea Of An Agreeable Person Is A Person Who Agrees With Me.

To Achieve What You Want, You Have To Be Stronger Than Those Around You

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

You Can Tell The Strength Of A Nation By The Women Behind Its Men.

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

Ah, Ireland... That Damnable, Delightful Country, Where Everything That Is Right Is The Opposite Of What It Ought To Be.

Variety Is The Mother Of Enjoyment.

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

I Was Told, Continued Egremont, That An Impassable Gulf Divided The Rich From The Poor; I Was Told That The Privileged And The People Formed Two Nations, Governed By Different Laws, Influenced By Different Manners, With No Thoughts Or Sympathies In Common; With An Innate Inability Of Mutual Comprehension.

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

Most People Die With Their Music Still Locked Up Inside Them.

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

The Difference Between A Misfortune And A Calamity Is This: If Gladstone Fell Into The Thames, It Would Be A Misfortune. But If Someone Dragged Him Out Again, That Would Be A Calamity.

The Fruit Of My Tree Of Knowledge Is Plucked, And It Is This: “adventures Are To The Adventurous.”

Real Politics Are The Possession And Distribution Of Power.

Distribution Of Power

Nature, Like Man, Sometimes Weeps From Gladness.

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.

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.

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

There Is No Gambling Like Politics. Nothing In Which The Power Of Circumstance Is More Evident.

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

We Moralize Among Ruins.

The Best Way To Become Acquainted With A Subject Is To Write About It.

What Is Wanted In Architecture, As In So Many Things, Is A Man. ... One Suggestion Might Be Made-no Profession In England Has Done Its Duty Until It Has Furnished A Victim. ... Even Our Boasted Navy Never Achieved A Great Victory Until We Shot An Admiral. Suppose An Architect Were Hanged? Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

Rothschild Is The Lord And Master Of The Money Markerts Of The World And Virtually Lord And Master Of Everything Else.

Man Is Not The Creature Of Circumstances, Circumstances Are The Creatures Of Men. We Are Free Agents, And Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

To Tax The Community For The Advantage Of A Class Is Not Protection: It Is Plunder.

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

To A Mother, A Child Is Everything; But To A Child, A Parent Is Only A Link In The Chain Of Her Existence.

Female Friendships Are Of Rapid Growth.

Nine-tenths Of Existing Books Are Nonsense, And The Clever Books Are The Refutation Of That Nonsense.

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.

The View Of Jerusalem Is The History Of The World; It Is More, It Is The History Of Earth And Of Heaven.

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

The Unfortunate Are Always Egotistical.

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.

I Am Bound To Furnish My Antagonists With Arguments, But Not With Comprehension.

What Is Crime Amongst The Multitude, Is Only Vice Among The Few.

It Is The Lot Of Man To Suffer.

Amusement To An Observing Mind Is Study.

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

There Is Scarcely Any Popular Tenet More Erroneous Than That Which Holds That When Time Is Slow, Life Is Dull.

As I Sat Opposite The Treasury Bench The Ministers Reminded Me Of One Of Those Marine Landscapes Not Very Unusual On The Coasts Of South America. You Behold A Range Of Exhausted Volcanoes.

A Conservative Government Is An Organized Hypocrisy.

Next To Knowing When To Seize An Opportunity, The Most Important Thing In Life Is To Know When To Forego An Advantage.

The Art Of Conversation Is To Be Prompt Without Being Stubborn, To Refute Without Argument, And To Clothe Great Matters In A Motley Garb.

It Destroys One's Nerves To Be Amiable Every Day To The Same Human Being.

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

Her Majesty Is Not A Subject.

Life Is Too Short To Be Little. You Must Enlarge Your Imagination And Then Act On It.

Life Is Too Short

Nothing Can Withstand The Power Of The Human Will If It Is Willing To Stake Its Very Existence To The Extent Of Its Purpose.

Man Is Only Great When He Acts From Passion.

All Is Mystery; But He Is A Slave Who Will Not Struggle To Penetrate The Dark Veil.

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

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.

I Think There Is Nothing More Lovely Than The Love Of Two Beautiful Women Who Are Not Envious Of Each Other's Charms.

Age Is Frequently Beautiful, Wisdom Appearing Like An Aftermath.

With Words We Govern Men.

Cleanliness And Order Are Not Matters Of Instinct; They Are Matters Of Education, And Like Most Great Things, You Must Cultivate A Taste For Them.

As A General Rule, The Most Successful Man In Life Is The Man Who Has The Best Information.

Conservatism Discards Prescription, Shrinks From Principle, Disavows Progress; Having Rejected All Respect For Antiquity, It Offers No Redress For The Present, And Makes No Preparation For The Future.

I Am Neither A Whig Nor Tory. My Politics Are Described In One Word And That Word Is England.

We Cannot Learn Men From Books.

Nowadays, Manners Are Easy And Life Is Hard.

If A Man Be Gloomy Let Him Keep To Himself. No One Has The Right To Go Croaking About Society, Or What Is Worse, Looking As If He Stifled Grief.

Success Is A Product Of Unremitting Attention To Purpose.

The Difference Of Race Is One Of The Reasons Why I Fear War May Always Exist; Because Race Implies Difference, Difference Implies Superiority, And Superiority Leads To Predominance.

I Never Deny. I Never Contradict. I Sometimes Forget.

The Difference Between Talent And Genius Is This: While The Former Usually Develops Some Special Branch Of Our Faculties, The Latter Commands Them All. When The Former Is Combined With Tact, It Is Often More Than A Match For The Latter.

Damn Your Principles! Stick To Your Party.

It Is Useless To Deny, And Impossible To Conceal, That A Great Part Of Europe, The Whole Of Italy And France, And A Great Portion Of Germany, To Say Nothing Of Other Countries - Is Covered With A Network Of These Secret Societies, Just As The Superfices Of The Earth Are Being Covered With Railroads.

One Should Conquer The World, Not To Enthrone A Man, But An Idea; For Ideas Exist Forever.

Conquer The World

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

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.

That Fatal Drollery Called A Representative Government.

Representatives

Representative Government

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.

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

A Parsimony Of Words Prodigal Of Sense.

I Believe That, Without Party, Parliamentary Government Is Impossible.

Time Is Precious, But Truth Is More Precious Than Time.

Quit The World, And The World Forgets You.

Small Things Affects Small Minds.

Sir, I Shall Not Defeat You - I Shall Transcend You.

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.

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.

Mediocrity Can Talk, But It Is For Genius To Observe.

All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

Failure Inspirational

I Have Been Ever Of Opinion That Revolutions Are Not To Be Evaded.

If The History Of England Be Ever Written By One Who Has The Knowledge And The Courage,-and Both Qualities Are Equally Requisite For The Undertaking, - The World Will Be More Astonished Than When Reading The Roman Annals By Niebuhr.

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.

I Will Sit Down Now, But The Time Will Come When You Will Hear Me.

A Majority Is Always Better Than The Best Repartee.

There Can Be No Economy Where There Is No Efficiency.

The Expected Always Happens

Truth Travels Slowly, But It Will Reach Even You In Time.

I Have Climbed To The Top Of The Greasy Pole!

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

A University Should Be A Place Of Light, Of Liberty, And Of Learning.

Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

I Do Not Believe Such A Quality As Chance Exists. Every Incident That Happens Must Be A Link In A Chain.

Nature Is More Powerful Than Education; Time Will Develop Everything.

I Believe Absence Is A Great Element Of Charm.

Never Argue. In Society Nothing Must Be; Give Only Results. If Any Person Differs From You, Bow, And Turn The Conversation.

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

You Will Find As You Grow Older That Courage Is The Rarest Of All Qualities To Be Found In Public Life.

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

A Practical Man Is A Man Who Practices The Errors Of His Forefathers.

What Appear To Be Calamities Are Often The Sources Of Fortune.

There Is No Education Like Adversity.

A Dark Horse, Which Had Never Been Thought Of, Rushed Past The Grandstand In Sweeping Triumph.

There Is No Waste Of Time Like Making Excuses.

A Great Person Is One Who Affects The Mind Of Their Generation.

I Am A Conservative To Preserve All That Is Good In Our Constitution, A Radical To Remove All That Is Bad.

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.

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.

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

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

Welfare Programs

The Tendency Of An Advanced Civilization Is In Truth Monarchy.

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

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

We Are Indeed A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

Adventures Are To The Adventurous.

I Have A Great Confidence In The Revelations Which Holidays Bring Forth.

Great Confidence

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

Positive Thinking

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

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

Every Moment Is Travel - If Understood.

We Live In Age Of Prudence. The Leaders Of The People Now Generally Follow.

The Girl Of The Period Sets Up To Be Natural, And Is Only Rude; Mistakes Insolence For Innocence; Says Everything That Comes First To Her Lips, And Thinks She Is Gay When She Is Only Giddy.

I Suppose, To Use Our National Motto, Something Will Turn Up.

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

The Noble Lord (stanley) Was The Prince Rupert To The Parliamentary Army--his Valour Did Not Always Serve His Own Cause.

There Is No Waste Of Time In Life Like That Of Making Explanations.

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

When I Want To Read A Novel, I Write One.

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.

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

The Depositary Of Power Is Always Unpopular.

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.

Give A Man A Fish And He Will Eat For A Day; Teach A Man To Fish And He Will Eat For A Lifetime; Give A Man Religion And He Will Die Praying For A Fish.

Teach A Man To Fish

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

Nothing Can Resist A Will Which Will Stake Even Existence Upon Its Fulfillment.

Life Is To Short To Be Small.

In Politics Experiments Means Revolutions.

When Men Are Young, They Want Experience And When They Have Gained Experience, They Want Energy.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

To Do Nothing And Get Something, Formed A Boy's Ideal Of A Manly Career.

No One But An Adventurous Traveler Can Know The Luxury Of Sleep.

I Have Lived Long Enough To Know That The Evening Glow Of Love Has Its Own Riches And Splendour.

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.

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