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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.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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Popular Privileges Are Consistent

Benjamin Disraeli

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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.

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Change Is Inevitable. Change Is Constant.

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.

The Noble Lord Is The Rupert Of Debate.

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.

All Is Mystery; But He Is A Slave Who Will Not Struggle To Penetrate The Dark Veil.

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

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

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 Is No Wisdom Like Frankness.

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

The Delight Of Opening A New Pursuit, Or A New Course Of Reading, Imparts The Vivacity And Novelty Of Youth Even To Old Age.

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

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

You Have Proved It Is A Very Moral Habit.

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

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

The Care Of The Public Health Is The First Duty Of The Statesman.

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.

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.

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.

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

Man Is Only Great When He Acts From Passion.

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

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

A Sophistical Rhetorician, Inebriated With The Exuberance Of His Own Verbosity, And Gifted With An Egotistical Imagination That Can At All Times Command An Interminable And Inconsistent Series Of Arguments To Malign An Opponent And To Glorify Himself.

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.

Diligence Is The Mother Of Good Fortune.

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.

Age Is Frequently Beautiful, Wisdom Appearing Like An Aftermath.

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

Women Carry A Beautiful Hand With Them To The Grave, When A Beautiful Face Has Long Ago Vanished.

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

Change Is Constant In A Progressive Country.

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

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

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

The Constitution Of England Is Not A Paper Constitution. It Is An Aggregate Of Institutions, Many Of Them Founded Merely Upon Prescription, Some Of Them Fortified By Muniments, But All Of Them The Fruit And Experience Of An Ancient And Illustrious People.

Eloquence Is The Child Of Knowledge.

Duty Cannot Exist Without Faith

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

Her Majesty Is Not A Subject.

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

No Government Can Be Long Secure Without A Formidable Opposition.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Positive Thinking

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

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 Majority Is Always Better Than The Best Repartee.

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

We Make Our Own Fortune And Call It Destiny.

Luck Is What A Capricious Man Believes In.

As For Our Majority... One Is Enough.

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

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

Almost Everything That Is Great Has Been Done By Youth.

The Unfortunate Are Always Egotistical.

The Egremonts Had Never Said Anything That Was Remembered, Or Done Anything That Could Be Recalled.

The Gondola Of London [a Hansom].

I Believe Absence Is A Great Element Of Charm.

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.

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

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

Every Moment Is Travel - If Understood.

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

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.

When Men Are Pure, Laws Are Useless; When Men Are Corrupt, Laws Are Broken.

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

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

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

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.

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.

A Conservative Government Is An Organized Hypocrisy.

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

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

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

Damn Your Principles! Stick To Your Party.

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.

There Is No Gambling Like Politics. Nothing In Which The Power Of Circumstance Is More Evident.

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

Meditation Is Culture.

Silence Is The Mother Of Truth.

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

There Is No Gambling Like Politics.

The Eyes Of The Social Herd, Who Always Observe Little Things, And Generally Form From Them Their Opinions Of Great Affairs.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Quit The World, And The World Forgets You.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

Information Upon Points Of Practical Politics.

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.

With Words We Govern Men.

More Pernicious Nonsense Was Never Devised By Man Than Treaties Of Commerce.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Principle Is Ever My Motto, No Expediency.

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

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

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

War Is Never A Solution; It Is An Aggravation.

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

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

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.

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

Never Take Anything For Granted.

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

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

He Who Gains Time Gains Everything.

Time Management

The More You Are Talked About The Less Powerful You Are.

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.

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.

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

Apologies Only Account For That Which They Do Not Alter.

There Is No Education Like Adversity.

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

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

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

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.

Christianity Teaches Us To Love Our Neighbor As Ourself; Modern Society Acknowledges No Neighbor.

Candor Is The Brightest Gem Of Criticism.

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 Tendency Of An Advanced Civilization Is In Truth Monarchy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ignorance Never Settles A Question.

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

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

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

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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

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

The Art Of Governing Mankind By Deceiving Them.

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.

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

Nine-tenths Of All Existing Books Are Nonsense.

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

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

All Is Race - There Is No Other Truth.

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

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

London; A Nation, Not A City.

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

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

I Do Not Like Giving Advice: It Is Incurring An Unnecessary Responsibility.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I Have Climbed To The Top Of The Greasy Pole!

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

Enthusiasm Is The Breath Of Genius.

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

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

There Is No Waste Of Time Like Making Excuses.

The Fool Wonders, The Wise Man Asks.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Novelty Is An Essential Attribute Of The Beautiful.

The Depositary Of Power Is Always Unpopular.

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

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

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

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

Difficulties Melt Away Under Tact.

The Noble Lord (stanley) Was The Prince Rupert To The Parliamentary Army--his Valour Did Not Always Serve His Own Cause.

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.

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

We Are Taught Words, Not Ideas.

The Canter Is A Cure For Every Evil.

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