Background Image

...

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.

-Benjamin Disraeli

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Am A Conservative

Benjamin Disraeli

...

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.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Benjamin Disraeli

An Obedient Wife Commands Her Husband.

The Expected Always Happens

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.

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

Real Politics Are The Possession And Distribution Of Power.

Distribution Of Power

Little Things Affect Little Minds.

Man Is Made To Adore And To Obey: But If You Will Not Command Him, If You Give Him Nothing To Worship, He Will Fashion His Own Divinities, And Find A Chieftain In His Own Passions.

Damn Your Principles! Stick To Your Party.

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

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

If You Want To Be A Leader Of People, You Must Learn To Watch Events.

But What Minutes! Count Them By Sensation, And Not By Calendars, And Each Moment Is A Day.

Perseverance And Tact Are The Two Most Important Qualities For The Individual Who Wants To Move Ahead.

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

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

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.

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

Nature, Like Man, Sometimes Weeps From Gladness.

Principle Is Ever My Motto, No Expediency.

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

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

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

I Have Climbed To The Top Of The Greasy Pole!

We Make Our Fortunes And We Call Them Fate.

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

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper; And According To That Will Be His Opinion As To The Particular Manner In Which The Course Of Events Is Regulated. A Consistent Man Believes In Destiny, A Capricious Man In Chance.

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

In Politics Experiments Means Revolutions.

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.

Worry - A God, Invisible But Omnipotent. It Steals The Bloom From The Cheek And Lightness From The Pulse; It Takes Away The Appetite, And Turns The Hair Gray.

Youth Is The Trustee Of Prosperity.

Almost Everything That Is Great Has Been Done By Youth.

Never Complain And Never Explain.

Cosmopolitan Critics, Men Who Are The Friends Of Every Country Save Their Own.

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

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 Sweet Simplicity Of The Three Percents.

Variety Is The Mother Of Enjoyment.

Where Knowledge Ends, Religion Begins.

Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts, For You Will Never Go Any Higher Than You Think.

Doubt Is An Element Of Criticism, And The Tendency Of Criticism Is Necessarily Skeptical.

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

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

Great Confidence

The Wisdom Of The Wise And The Experience Of The Ages Are Perpetuated By Quotations.

Eloquence Is The Child Of Knowledge. When A Mind Is Full, Like A Wholesome River, It Is Also Clear.

The Profound Thinker Always Suspects That He Is Superficial.

Life Is Not Dated Merely By Years. Events Are Sometimes The Best Calendars.

The Fool Wonders, The Wise Man Asks.

No Enemy Is Indeed So Terrible As A Man Of Genius.

Patience Is A Necessary Ingredient Of Genius.

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

Nine-tenths Of All Existing Books Are Nonsense.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

I See Before Me The Statue Of A Celebrated Minister, Who Said That Confidence Was A Plant Of Slow Growth. But I Believe, However Gradual May Be The Growth Of Confidence, That Of Credit Requires Still More Time To Arrive At Maturity.

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

Every Production Of Genius Must Be The Production Of Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm For Life

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

When A Man Is Going To Try And Borrow Money, It Is Wise To Look Prosperous

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

A Parsimony Of Words Prodigal Of Sense.

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

Nowadays, Manners Are Easy And Life Is Hard.

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

England Is Unrivalled For Two Things - Sport And Politics.

The Art Of Governing Mankind By Deceiving Them.

A Nation, As An Individual, Has Duties To Fulfill Appointed By God And His Moral Law.

Apologies Only Account For That Which They Do Not Alter.

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

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!

What Is Earnest Is Not Always True; On The Contrary Error Is Often More Earnest Than Truth.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Continent Will Not Suffer England To Be The Workshop Of The World.

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

Difficulties Melt Away Under Tact.

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

Mr Speaker, I Withdraw My Statement That Half The Cabinet Are Asses - Half The Cabinet Are Not Asses.

We Are Taught Words, Not Ideas.

You Have Proved It Is A Very Moral Habit.

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.

A Nation Has A Fixed Quantity Of Invention, And It Will Make Itself Felt.

Novelty Is An Essential Attribute Of The Beautiful.

That Soul-subduing Sentiment, Harshly Called Flirtation, Which Is The Spell Of A Country House.

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

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

Plagiarists, At Least, Have The Merit Of Preservation.

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

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

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

Consider Ireland.... You Have A Starving Population, An Absentee Aristocracy, And An Alien Church, And In Addition The Weakest Executive In The World. That Is The Irish Question.

The Disappointment Of Manhood Succeeds The Delusion Of Youth.

Luck Is What A Capricious Man Believes In.

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

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

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.

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

I Will Not Go Down To Posterity Talking Bad Grammar.

War Is Never A Solution; It Is An Aggravation.

'a Sound Conservative Government,' Said Taper, Musingly. 'i Understand: Tory Men And Whig Measures.'

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

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.

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

A Female Friend, Amiable, Clever, And Devoted, Is A Possession More Valuable Than Parks And Palaces; And Without Such A Muse, Few Men Can Succeed In Life, None Be Contented.

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.

Nature Has Given Us Two Ears But Only One Mouth.

It Is The Fashion To Style The Present Moment An Extraordinary Crisis.

We Are Now In Want Of An Art To Teach How Books Are To Be Read Rather Than To Read Them. Such An Art Is Practicable.

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

There Are So Many Plans, So Many Schemes, And So Many Reasons Why There Should Be Neither Plans Nor Schemes.

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

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.

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.

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.

The Essence Of Education Is The Education Of The Body.

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.

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

We Are Not Creatures Of Circumstance; We Are Creators Of Circumstance.

There Is No Diplomacy Like Silence.

Whatever They Did, The Elysians Were Careful Never To Be Vehement.

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

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

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.

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

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.

The English Nation Is Never So Great As In Adversity.

Without Tact You Can Learn Nothing.

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.

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

Meditation Is Culture.

Beauty And Health Are The Chief Sources Of Happiness.

Source Of Happiness

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

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.

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

The Depositary Of Power Is Always Unpopular.

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.

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.

All Is Race; There Is No Other Truth ,and Every Race Must Fall Which Carelessly Suffers Its Blood To Become Mixed.

Change Is Constant In A Progressive Country.

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

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

London Is A Modern Babylon.

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.

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.

He Who Anticipates His Century Is Generally Persecuted When Living, And Always Pilfered When Dead.

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

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

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

Protection Is Not A Principle But An Expedient

Success Is The Child Of Audacity.

Silence Often Expresses 'more Powerfully Than Speech The Verdict And Judgment Of Society.

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

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

The Youth Of A Nation Are The Trustees Of Posterity.

I Grew Intoxicated With My Own Eloquence.

Debt Is A Prolific Mother Of Folly And Of Crime.

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

Positive Thinking

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

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

There Are Few Young Women In Existence Who Have Not The Power Of Fascinating, If They Choose To Exert It.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Protect Yourself

I Say That Justice Is Truth In Action.

What We Call Public Opinion Is Generally Public Sentiment.

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.

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

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.

The Test Of Political Institutions Is The Condition Of The Country Whose Future They Regulate.

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

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

Teach Us That Wealth Is Not Elegance, That Profusion Is Not Magnificence, That Splendor Is Not Beauty.

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

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

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

There Is Moderation Even In Excess.

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.

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

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

Under This Roof Are The Heads Of The Family Of Rothschild - A Name Famous In Every Capital Of Europe And Every Division Of The Globe. If You Like, We Shall Divide The United States Into Two Parts, One For You, James [rothschild], And One For You, Lionel [rothschild]. Napoleon Will Do Exactly And All That I Shall Advise Him.

The Characteristic Of The Present Age Is Craving Credulity.

Characteristics

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

Genius, When Young, Is Divine.

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

A Precedent Embalms A Principle.

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

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

Information Upon Points Of Practical Politics.

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

Trending Author

Bruce Beresford

Roberto Cavalli

Category