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

-Benjamin Disraeli

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Nothing In Life Is

Benjamin Disraeli

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

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

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

With Words We Govern Men.

Never Complain And Never Explain.

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

England Is A Domestic Country. Here The Home Is Revered And The Hearth Sacred. The Nation Is Represented By A Family,--the Royal Family,--and If That Family Is Educated With A Sense Of Responsibility And A Sentiment Of Public Duty, It Is Difficult To Exaggerate The Salutary Influence It May Exercise Over A Nation.

There Is No Education Like Adversity.

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

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.

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.

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

Without Tact You Can Learn Nothing.

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.

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

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

Change Is Constant In A Progressive Country.

Little Things Affect Little Minds.

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.

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

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

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

A Majority Is Always Better Than The Best Repartee.

There Is No Greater Sin Than To Be Trop Prononce.

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

The Fool Wonders, The Wise Man Asks.

Enthusiasm Is The Breath Of Genius.

In Politics, Nothing Is Contemptible.

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

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

Life Is Too Short

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.

Patience Is A Necessary Ingredient Of Genius.

There Is Moderation Even In Excess.

A Parsimony Of Words Prodigal Of Sense.

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

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

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.

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

The Disappointment Of Manhood Succeeds The Delusion Of Youth.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Life Is Too Short To Be Little.

There Is No Diplomacy Like Silence.

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

Modern Science Has Vindicated The Natural Equality Of Man.

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

No Government Can Be Long Secure Without A Formidable Opposition.

No Conjunction Can Possibly Occur, However Fearful, However Tremendous It May Appear, From Which A Man By His Own Energy May Not Extricate Himself, As A Mariner By The Rattling Of His Cannon Can Dissipate The Impending Waterspout.

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

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.

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.

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

The Characteristic Of The Present Age Is Craving Credulity.

Characteristics

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

The Originality Of A Subject Is In Its Treatment.

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

Despair Is The Conclusion Of Fools.

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

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.

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

Amusement To An Observing Mind Is Study.

I Am Myself A Gentleman Of The Press, And Have No Other Escutcheon.

Quit The World, And The World Forgets You.

The Art Of Governing Mankind By Deceiving Them.

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

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

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

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.

Principle Is Ever My Motto, No Expediency.

London Is A Roost For Every Bird.

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

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

Every Production Of Genius Must Be The Production Of Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm For Life

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

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

Though I Sit Down Now, The Time Will Come Whenyou Will Hear Me.

Nature, Like Man, Sometimes Weeps From Gladness.

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.

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

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.

Novelty Is An Essential Attribute Of The Beautiful.

You Never Observe A Great Intellectual Movement In Europe In Which The Jews Do Not Greatly Participate. The First Jesuits Were Jews.

The World Is Governed By Very Different Personages From What Is Imagined By Those Who Are Not Behind The Scenes.

World Government

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

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

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

Youth Is The Trustee Of Prosperity.

Apologies Only Account For That Which They Do Not Alter.

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.

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

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

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

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

Conquer The World

He Who Gains Time Gains Everything.

Time Management

Nine-tenths Of All Existing Books Are Nonsense.

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.

Change Is Inevitable. Change Is Constant.

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

All Is Race - There Is No Other Truth.

As We Retain But A Faint Remembrance Of Our Felicity, It Is But Fair That The Smartest Stroke Of Sorrow Should, If Bitter, At Least Be Brief.

England Does Not Love Coalitions.

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.

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

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

Nature Is Stronger Than Education.

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.

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

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

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

The Youth Of A Nation Are The Trustees Of Posterity.

Beauty Can Inspire Miracles.

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

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.

You Know, All Is Development. The Principle Is Perpetually Going On. First, There Was Nothing, Then There Was Something; Then-i Forget The Next-i Think There Were Shells, Then Fishes; Then We Came-let Me See-did We Come Next? Never Mind That; We Came At Last. And At The Next Change There Will Be Something Very Superior To Us-something With Wings. Ah! That's It: We Were Fishes, And I Believe We Shall Be Crows.

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

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 Most Dangerous Strategy Is To Jump A Chasm In Two Leaps.

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

Every Man Has A Right To Be Conceited Until He Is Successful.

Turtle Makes All Men Equal.

I Believe Absence Is A Great Element Of Charm.

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.

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.

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

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.

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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

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

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.

Eloquence Is The Child Of Knowledge.

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

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

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

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

There Are Few Faces That Can Afford To Smile: A Smile Is Sometimes Bewitching, In General Vapid, Often A Contortion.

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

The Profound Thinker Always Suspects That He Is Superficial.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

There Can Be No Economy Where There Is No Efficiency.

Everything Comes If A Man Will Only Wait.

War Is Never A Solution; It Is An Aggravation.

There Is No Waste Of Time Like Making Excuses.

William Gladstone Has Not A Single Redeeming Defect.

Departure Should Be Sudden.

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.

As For Our Majority... One Is Enough.

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

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.

As A General Rule, Nobody Has Money Who Ought To Have It.

I Say That Justice Is Truth In Action.

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

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

Great Men Never Require Experience.

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

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

Real Politics Are The Possession And Distribution Of Power.

Distribution Of Power

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

Welfare Programs

Adventures Are To The Adventurous.

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.

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

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.

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.

Poverty Has Its Duties As Well As Its Rights.

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

There Are Amusing People Who Do Not Interest, And Interesting People Who Do Not Amuse

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

That Fatal Drollery Called A Representative Government.

Representatives

Representative Government

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

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

A Canter Is The Cure For All Evil.

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

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

Protect Yourself

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