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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.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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Had It Not Been

Benjamin Disraeli

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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.

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A Realist Is A Man Who Insists On Making The Same Mistakes His Grandfather Did.

We Make Our Fortunes And We Call Them Fate.

A Canter Is The Cure For All Evil.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Welfare Programs

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. Instead Of The City Of The Violet Crown, A Lancashire Village Has Expanded Into A Mighty Region Of Factories And Warehouses. Yet, Rightly Understood, Manchester Is As Great A Human Exploit; As Athens.

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

Certainly Manchester Is The Most Wonderful City Of Modern Times!

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.

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

The Feeling Of Satiety, Almost Inseparable From Large Possessions, Is A Surer Cause Of Misery Than Ungratified Desires.

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

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.

That Youthful Fervor, Which Is Sometimes Called Enthusiasm, But Which Is A Heat Of Imagination Subsequently Discovered To Be Inconsistent With The Experience Of Actual Life.

I Have Climbed To The Top Of The Greasy Pole!

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

Her Majesty Is Not A Subject.

The People Of England Are The Most Enthusiastic In The World.

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

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

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

Great Men Never Require Experience.

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

Nowadays, Manners Are Easy And Life Is Hard.

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

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

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

Where Knowledge Ends, Religion Begins.

Friendship Is The Gift Of The Gods, And The Most Precious Boon To Man.

A Person's Fate Is Their Own Temper.

Christianity Is Completed Judaism Or It Is Nothing.

Governments Do Not Govern, But Merely Control The Machinery Of Government, Being Themselves Controlled By The Hidden Hand.

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

The English Nation Is Never So Great As In Adversity.

War Is Never A Solution; It Is An Aggravation.

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

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

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

Damn Your Principles! Stick To Your Party.

Generally Speaking, Among Sensible Persons, It Would Seem That A Rich Man Deems That Friend A Sincere One Who Does Not Want To Borrow His Money; While, Among The Less Favored With Fortune's Gifts, The Sincere Friend Is Generally Esteemed To Be The Individual Who Is Ready To Lend It.

All Paradise Opens! Let Me Die Eating Ortolans To The Sound Of Soft Music!

A Majority Is Always Better Than The Best Repartee.

Change Is Inevitable. Change Is Constant.

Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

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

Beauty Can Inspire Miracles.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Departure Should Be Sudden.

The Best Security For Civilization Is The Dwelling, And Upon Properly Appointed And Becoming Dwellings Depends, More Than Anything Else, The Improvement Of Mankind.

I Have Always Thought That Every Woman Should Marry, And No Man.

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

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

I Pride Myself In Recognizing And Upholding Ability In Every Party And Wherever I Meet It.

Literature Is An Avenue To Glory, Ever Open For Those Ingenious Men Who Are Deprived Of Honors Or Of Wealth.

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.

And It Is A Singular Truth That, Though A Man May Shake Off National Habits, Accent, Manner Of Thinking, Style Of Dress,--though He May Become Perfectly Identified With Another Nation, And Speak Its Language Well, Perhaps Better Than His Own,--yet Never Can He Succeed In Changing His Handwriting To A Foreign Style.

All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

Failure Inspirational

Our Domestic Affections Are The Most Salutary Basis Of All Good Government.

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.

Candor Is The Brightest Gem Of Criticism.

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

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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.

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

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

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

Scientific, Like Spiritual Truth, Has Ever From The Beginning Been Descending From Heaven To Man.

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

A New Acquaintance Is Like A New Book. I Prefer It, Even If Bad, To A Classic.

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

The Disappointment Of Manhood Succeeds The Delusion Of Youth.

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

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.

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.

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

Books Are The Curse Of The Human Race.

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In Politics, Nothing Is Contemptible.

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I Grew Intoxicated With My Own Eloquence.

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

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

Quit The World, And The World Forgets You.

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

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

Protect Yourself

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.

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.

Everything Comes If A Man Will Only Wait.

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

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

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 Originality Of A Subject Is In Its Treatment.

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.

Difficulties Melt Away Under Tact.

We Cannot Learn Men From Books.

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

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

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

Every Moment Is Travel - If Understood.

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

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

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

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

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.

Grief Is The Agony Of An Instant. The Indulgence Of Grief The Blunder Of A Life.

Conservatism... Offers No Redress For The Present, And Makes No Preparation For The Future.

The Pursuit Of Science Leads Only To The Insoluble.

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

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

Posterity Will Do Justice To That Unprincipled Maniac Gladstone - Extraordinary Mixture Of Envy, Vindictiveness, Hypocrisy And Superstition; And With One Commanding Characteristic - Whether Prime Minister Or Leader Of The Opposition, Whether Preaching, Praying, Speechifying Or Scribbling - Never A Gentleman.

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

Amusement To An Observing Mind Is Study.

London Is A Modern Babylon.

England Does Not Love Coalitions.

Fear Makes Us Feel Our Humanity.

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

The Enterprise Of America Precedes That Of Europe, As The Industry Of England Precedes That Of The Rest Of Europe.

As For Our Majority... One Is Enough.

Age Is Frequently Beautiful, Wisdom Appearing Like An Aftermath.

Genius, When Young, Is Divine.

England Is Unrivalled For Two Things - Sport And Politics.

Increased Means And Increased Leisure Are The Two Civilizers Of Man.

Real Politics Are The Possession And Distribution Of Power.

Distribution Of Power

A Conservative Government Is An Organized Hypocrisy.

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

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.

The Unfortunate Are Always Egotistical.

Party Is Organized Opinion.

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

If You Establish A Democracy, You Must In Due Time Reap The Fruits Of A Democracy. You Will In Due Season Have Great Impatience Of Public Burdens, Combined In Due Season With Great Increase Of Public Expenditure. You Will In Due Season Have Wars Entered Into From Passion And Not From Reason; And You Will In Due Season Submit To Peace Ignominiously Sought And Ignominiously Obtained, Which Will Diminish Your Authority And Perhaps Endanger Your Independence. You Will In Due Season Find Your Property Is Less Valuable, And Your Freedom Less Complete.

Religion Is Civilization, The Highest.

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

Democracies Have

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

Fame Has Eagle Wings, And Yet She Mounts Not So High As Man's Desires.

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

Moderation Is The Center Wherein All Philosophies, Both Human And Divine, Meet.

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

One Of The Hardest Things In This World Is To Admit You Are Wrong. And Nothing Is More Helpful In Resolving A Situation Than Its Frank Admission.

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

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.

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.

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

Be Amusing: Never Tell Unkind Stories; Above All, Never Tell Long Ones.

Great Countries Are Those That Produce Great People.

It Shows You Exactly How A Star Is Formed; Nothing Else Can Be So Pretty! A Cluster Of Vapor, The Cream Of The Milky Way, A Sort Of Celestial Cheese, Churned Into Light.

Is Man An Ape Or An Angel? Now I Am On The Side Of The Angels.

Novelty Is An Essential Attribute Of The Beautiful.

The Legacy Of Heroes Is The Memory Of A Great Name And The Inheritance Of A Great Example.

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

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

Debt Is A Prolific Mother Of Folly And Of Crime.

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.

We Are All Born For Love. It Is The Principle Of Existence, And Its Only End.

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

London Is A Roost For Every Bird.

Little Things Affect Little Minds.

We Live In An Age When To Be Young And To Be Indifferent Can Be No Longer Synonymous. We Must Prepare For The Coming Hour. The Claims Of The Future Are Represented By Suffering Millions; And The Youth Of A Nation Are The Trustees Of Posterity.

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

The Indulgence In Grief Is A Blunder.

In All Church Discussions We Are Apt To Forget The Second Testament Is Avowedly Only A Supplement. Jesus Came To Complete The Law And The Prophets. Christianity Is Completed Judaism, Or It Is Nothing. Christianity Is Incomprehensible Without Judaism, As Judaism Is Incomplete Without Christianity.

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.

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

To Be Famous When You Are Young Is The Fortune Of The Gods.

It Is The Lot Of Man To Suffer.

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

Protection Is Not A Principle But An Expedient

The Services In Wartime Are Fit Only For Desperadoes, But In Peace Are Only Fit For Fools.

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.

The Noble Lord Is The Rupert Of Debate.

There Is Anguish In The Recollection That We Have Not Adequately Appreciated The Affection Of Those Whom We Have Loved And Lost.

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.

When I Left The Dining Room After Sitting Next To Mr. Gladstone, I Thought He Was The Cleverest Man In England. But After Sitting Next To Mr. Disraeli, I Thought I Was The Cleverest Woman In England.

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

Desperation Is Sometimes As Powerful An Inspirer As Genius.

A Very Remarkable People The Zulus: They Defeat Our Generals, They Convert Our Bishops, They Have Settled The Fate Of A Great European Dynasty.

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.

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

Almost Everything That Is Great Has Been Done By Youth.

Colonies Do Not Cease To Be Colonies Because They Are Independent.

Happiness Is Only To Be Found In A Recurrence To The Principles Of Human Nature; And These Will Prompt Very Simple Measures.

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.

Life Is To Short To Be Small.

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

Information Upon Points Of Practical Politics.

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

We Are Taught Words, Not Ideas.

Small Things Affects Small Minds.

Rothschild Is The Lord And Master Of The Money Markets Of The World, And Of Course Virtually Lord And Master Of Everything Else. He Literally Held The Revenues Of Southern Italy In Pawn, And Monarchs And Ministers Of All Countries Courted His Advice And Were Guided By His Suggestions.

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

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

I Say That Justice Is Truth In Action.

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