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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.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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I Was Told, Continued

Benjamin Disraeli

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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.

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

The Sweet Simplicity Of The Three Percents.

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

Never Apologize For Showing Feeling. When You Do So, You Apologize For The Truth.

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.

I Have Begun Several Times Many Things, And I Have Often Succeeded At Last.

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

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.

England Does Not Love Coalitions.

Taste, When Once Obtained, May Be Said To Be No Acquiring Faculty, And Must Remain Stationary; But Knowledge Is Of Perpetual Growth And Has Infinite Demands. Taste, Like An Artificial Canal, Winds Through A Beautiful Country, But Its Borders Are Confined And Its Term Is Limited. Knowledge Navigates The Ocean, And Is Perpetually On Voyages Of Discovery.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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.

A Protestant, If He Wants Aid Or Advice On Any Matter, Can Only Go To His Solicitor.

Everything Comes If A Man Will Only Wait.

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.

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

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

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

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

Expediency Is A Law Of Nature. The Camel Is A Wonderful Animal, But The Desert Made The Camel.

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.

Variety Is The Mother Of Enjoyment.

Nature, Like Man, Sometimes Weeps From Gladness.

The Secret Of Success Is Constancy To Purpose.

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

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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

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

Gentl, I Am A Party Man. I Believe That, Without Party, Parliamentary Government Is Impossible. I Look Upon Parliamentary Government As The Noblest Government In The World, And Certainly The One Most Suited To England.

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.

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.

Where Knowledge Ends, Religion Begins.

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

With Words We Govern Men.

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 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.

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.

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

There Is Moderation Even In Excess.

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

Nature Is Stronger Than Education.

Accent And Emphasis Are The Pith Of Reading; Punctuation Is But Secondary.

Meditation Is Culture.

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.

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

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

The Unfortunate Are Always Egotistical.

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

Duty Cannot Exist Without Faith

Ignorance Never Settles A Question.

Next To The Assumption Of Power Was The Responsibility Of Relinquishing It.

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Gondola Of London [a Hansom].

The Essence Of Education Is The Education Of The Body.

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.

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

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

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

A Conservative Government Is An Organized Hypocrisy.

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.

Life Is Too Short To Be Little.

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

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

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

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

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

Turtle Makes All Men Equal.

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.

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

The Jews Are A Nervous People. Nineteen Centuries Of Christian Love Have Taken A Toll.

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

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

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

I Am The Blank Page Between The Old And The New Testament.

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

Democracies Have

Two Nations Between Whom There Is No Intercourse And No Sympathy; Who Are As Ignorant Of Each Other's Habits, Thoughts, And Feelings, As If They Were Dwellers In Different Zones, Or Inhabitants Of Different Planets. The Rich And The Poor.

I Have Climbed To The Top Of The Greasy Pole!

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

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

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

Life Is Too Short

Protection Is Not A Principle But An Expedient

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

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

Despair Is The Conclusion Of Fools.

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

The Canter Is A Cure For Every Evil.

One Secret Of Success In Life Is For A Man To Be Ready For His Opportunity When It Comes.

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

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

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

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.

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

No Man Will Treat With Indifference The Principle Of Race. It Is The Key To History, And Why History Is Often So Confused Is That It Has Been Written By Men Who Are Ignorant Of This Principle And All The Knowledge It Involves. . . Language And Religion Do Not Make A Race--there Is Only One Thing Which Makes A Race, And That Is Blood.

Every Production Of Genius Must Be The Production Of Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm For Life

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

Positive Thinking

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

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

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

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

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

The Profound Thinker Always Suspects That He Is Superficial.

Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts

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

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

Welfare Programs

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

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

When A Man Fell Into His Anecdotage It Was A Sign For Him To Retire From The World.

No Government Can Be Long Secure Without A Formidable Opposition.

Wherever Is Found What Is Called A Paternal Government, There Is Found State Education. It Has Been Discovered That The Best Way To Insure Implicit Obedience Is To Commence Tyranny In The Nursery.

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.

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

Youth Is A Blunder; Manhood A Struggle, Old Age A Regret.

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

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

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

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.

In Politics Experiments Means Revolutions.

A Good Eater Must Be A Good Man; For A Good Eater Must Have A Good Digestion, And A Good Digestion Depends Upon A Good Conscience.

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

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.

Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

I Say That Justice Is Truth In Action.

It Is The Lot Of Man To Suffer.

Luck Is What A Capricious Man Believes In.

The Conduct Of Men Depends Upon Their Temperament, Not Upon A Bunch Of Musty Maxims.

Modern Science Has Vindicated The Natural Equality Of Man.

There Is No Waste Of Time Like Making Excuses.

There Is No Gambling Like Politics.

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

Frank And Explicit - That Is The Right Line To Take When You Wish To Conceal Your Own Mind And Confuse The Minds Of Others.

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

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

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.

I Will Not Go Down To Posterity Talking Bad Grammar.

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

I Believe Absence Is A Great Element Of Charm.

You Have Proved It Is A Very Moral Habit.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

We Should Never Lose An Occasion. Opportunity Is More Powerful Even Than Conquerors And Prophets.

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

The Practice Of Politics In The East May Be Defined By One Word: Dissimulation.

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.

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

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

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

We Are Indeed A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

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

Positive Thinking

The Art Of Governing Mankind By Deceiving Them.

Real Politics Are The Possession And Distribution Of Power.

Distribution Of Power

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

We Moralize Among Ruins.

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

Departure Should Be Sudden.

There Is No Education Like Adversity.

The Pursuit Of Science Leads Only To The Insoluble.

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

Man Is Only Great When He Acts From Passion.

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

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

Patience Is A Necessary Ingredient Of Genius.

Every Moment Is Travel - If Understood.

The European Talks Of Progress Because By The Aid Of A Few Scientific Discoveries He Has Established A Society Which Has Mistaken Comfort For Civilisation.

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

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

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

Great Confidence

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

All Is Race - There Is No Other Truth.

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

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

Nowadays, Manners Are Easy And Life Is Hard.

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

Female Friendships Are Of Rapid Growth.

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

Silence Is The Mother Of Truth.

The Characteristic Of The Present Age Is Craving Credulity.

Characteristics

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

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

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.

Youth Is The Trustee Of Prosperity.

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

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 Right Honourable Gentleman Caught The Whigs Bathing, And Walked Away With Their Clothes. He Has Left Them In The Full Enjoyment Of Their Liberal Positions, And He Is Himself A Strict Conservative Of Their Garments.

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.

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

Damn Your Principles! Stick To Your Party.

The More Extensive A Man's Knowledge Of What Has Been Done, The Greater Will Be His Power Of Knowing What To Do.

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