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I Look Upon Parliamentary Government As The Noblest Government In The World, And Certainly One Most Suited To England. But Without The Discipline Of Political Connection, Animated By The Principle Of Private Honor, I Feel Certain That A Popular Assembly Would Sink Before The Power Or The Corruption Of A Minister.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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I Look Upon Parliamentary

Benjamin Disraeli

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I Look Upon Parliamentary Government As The Noblest Government In The World, And Certainly One Most Suited To England. But Without The Discipline Of Political Connection, Animated By The Principle Of Private Honor, I Feel Certain That A Popular Assembly Would Sink Before The Power Or The Corruption Of A Minister.

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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.

Damn Your Principles! Stick To Your Party.

Be Civil To All; Sociable To Many; Familiar With Few.

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.

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

The Fool Wonders, The Wise Man Asks.

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

What Wonderful Things Are Events! The Least Are Of Greater Importance Than The Most Sublime And Comprehensive Speculations.

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.

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

An Obedient Wife Commands Her Husband.

London Owes Everything To Its Press: It Owes As Much To Its Press As It Does To Its Being The Seat Of Government And The Law.

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

Eloquence Is The Child Of Knowledge.

Man Is Only Great When He Acts From Passion.

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

We Are Indeed A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

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

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

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

Life Is Too Short

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

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

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.

Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts

Plagiarists, At Least, Have The Merit Of Preservation.

There Can Be No Economy Where There Is No Efficiency.

What We Call Public Opinion Is Generally Public Sentiment.

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

The Canter Is A Cure For Every Evil.

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

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

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.

Life Is To Short To Be Small.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

Diligence Is The Mother Of Good Fortune.

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.

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.

Religion Is Civilization, The Highest.

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

Religion Should Be The Rule Of Life, Not A Casual Incident In It.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

There Is No Diplomacy Like Silence.

Apologies Only Account For That Which They Do Not Alter.

Protection Is Not A Principle But An Expedient

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

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

That Fatal Drollery Called A Representative Government.

Representatives

Representative Government

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 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.

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

The Sweet Simplicity Of The Three Percents.

You Have Despoiled Churches. You Have Threatened Every Corporation And Endowment In The Country. You Have Examined Into Everybodys Affairs. You Have Criticised Every Profession And Vexed Every Trade. No One Is Certain Of His Property, And Nobody Knows What Duties He May Have To Perform To-morrow. This Is The Policy Of Confiscation As Compared With That Of Concurrent Endowment.

Romance Has Been Elegantly Defined As The Offspring Of Fiction And Love.

It Is A Great Mistake To Suppose That Bribery And Corruption, Although They May Be Very Convenient For Gratifying The Ambition Or The Vanity Of Individuals, Have Any Great Effect Upon The Fortunes Or The Power Of Parties. And It Is A Great Mistake To Suppose That Bribery And Corruption Are Means By Which Power Can Either Be Ob-tained Or Retained.

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

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

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

A Member Of Parliament To Disraeli: 'sir, You Will Either Die On The Gallows Or Of Some Unspeakable Disease.' That Depends, Sir,' Said Disraeli, 'whether I Embrace Your Policies Or Your Mistress.

As For Our Majority... One Is Enough.

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.

Poverty Has Its Duties As Well As Its Rights.

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

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

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

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

The Depositary Of Power Is Always Unpopular.

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

Information Upon Points Of Practical Politics.

In Art The Greeks Were The Children Of The Egyptians. The Day May Yet Come When We Shall Do Justice To The High Powers Of That Mysterious And Imaginative People.

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

Fame And Power Are The Objects Of All Men. Even Their Partial Fruition Is Gained By Very Few; And That, Too, At The Expense Of Social Pleasure, Health, Conscience, Life.

Yes, I Am A Jew And When The Ancestors Of The Right Honorable Gentleman Were Brutal Savages In An Unknown Island, Mine Were Priests In The Temple Of Solomon.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Departure Should Be Sudden.

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

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

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

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

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

Positive Thinking

Christianity Is Completed Judaism Or It Is Nothing.

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.

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

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.

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

A Majority Is Always Better Than The Best Repartee.

He Was One Of These Men Who Think That The World Can Be Saved By Writing A Pamphlet.

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

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

An Amateur May Not Be An Artist, Though An Artist Should Be An Amateur.

Coalitions Though Successful Have Always Found This, That Their Triumph Has Been Brief.

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

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

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

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 Youth Of A Nation Are The Trustees Of Posterity.

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

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

Predominant Opinions Are Generally The Opinions Of The Generation That Is Vanishing.

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

Quit The World, And The World Forgets You.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

There Are Three Kinds Of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics.

You Must Originate, And You Must Sympathize; Yon Must Possess, At The Same Time, The Habit Of Communicating And The Habit Of Listening. The Union Is Rather Rare, But Irresistible.

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

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

Welfare Programs

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.

Little Things Affect Little Minds.

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.

I Will Not Go Down To Posterity Talking Bad Grammar.

I Say That Justice Is Truth In Action.

She Is An Excellent Creature, But She Can Never Remember Which Came First, The Greeks Or The Romans.

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

Change Is Inevitable. Change Is Constant.

All Must Respect Those Who Respect Themselves.

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

Positive Thinking

The Tone And Tendency Of Liberalism...is To Attack The Institutions Of The Country Under The Name Of Reform And To Make War On The Manners And Customs Of The People Under The Pretext Of Progress.

No Government Can Be Long Secure Without A Formidable Opposition. It Reduces Their Supporters To That Tractable Number Which Can Be Managed By The Joint Influences Of Fruition And Hope. It Offers Vengeance To The Discontented, And Distinction To The Ambitious; And Employs The Energies Of Aspiring Spirits, Who Otherwise May Prove Traitors In A Division Or Assassins In A Debate.

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.

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

Variety Is The Mother Of Enjoyment.

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

Success Is A Product Of Unremitting Attention To Purpose.

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

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

With Words We Govern Men.

A Person's Fate Is Their Own Temper.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Money Is Power, And Rare Are The Heads That Can Withstand The Possession Of Great Power.

London; A Nation, Not A City.

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

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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

The Greeks Adored Their Gods By The Simple Compliment Of Kissing Their Hands; And The Romans Were Treated As Atheists If They Would Not Perform The Same Act When They Entered A Temple. This Custom, However, As A Religious Ceremony Declined With Paganism,but Was Continued As A Salutation By Inferiors To Their Superiors, Or As A Token Of Esteem Among Friends.

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

Of All Unfortunate Men One Of The Unhappiest Is A Middling Author Endowed With Too Lively A Sensibility For Criticism.

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

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.

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

Protect Yourself

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

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.

Never Take Anything For Granted.

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

The Greatest Of All Evils Is A Weak Government

Weak Government

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.

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

I Look Upon Parliamentary Government As The Noblest Government In The World, And Certainly One Most Suited To England. But Without The Discipline Of Political Connection, Animated By The Principle Of Private Honor, I Feel Certain That A Popular Assembly Would Sink Before The Power Or The Corruption Of A Minister.

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

It Is Knowledge That Influences And Equalizes The Social Condition Of Man; That Gives To All, However Different Their Political Position, Passions Which Are In Common, And Enjoyments Which Are Universal.

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

There Is No Greater Sin Than To Be Trop Prononce.

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.

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

Why Should One Say That The Machine Does Not Live? It Breathes, For Its Breath Forms The Atmosphere Of Some Towns.

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.

All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

Failure Inspirational

Man Is Made To Create, From The Poet To The Potter.

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

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."

In Politics, Nothing Is Contemptible.

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

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

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