Background Image

...

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.

-Benjamin Disraeli

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

You Asked Me Where

Benjamin Disraeli

...

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.

Views: 32006

Topic

More From Benjamin Disraeli

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

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

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

Never Take Anything For Granted.

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.

Certainly Manchester Is The Most Wonderful City Of Modern Times!

Change Is Constant In A Progressive Country.

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.

Nurture Your Minds With Great Thoughts. To Believe In The Heroic Makes Heroes.

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

Books Are The Curse Of The Human Race.

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.

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.

Nine-tenths Of Existing Books Are Nonsense, And The Clever Books Are The Refutation Of That Nonsense.

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

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

Nature Has Given Us Two Ears But Only One Mouth.

Without Publicity There Can Be No Public Support, And Without Public Support Every Nation Must Decay.

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

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

Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts

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.

The Greatest Good You Can Do For Another Is Not Just To Share Your Riches But To Reveal To Him His Own.

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

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

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

An Obedient Wife Commands Her Husband.

Silence Is The Mother Of Truth.

Success Is The Child Of Audacity.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The Depositary Of Power Is Always Unpopular.

The English Nation Is Never So Great As In Adversity.

Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

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.

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 Can Be Economy Only Where There Is Efficiency.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

I Am Prepared For The Worst, But Hope For The Best.

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 No Waste Of Time Like Making Excuses.

If You Establish A Democracy, You Must In Due Time Reap The Fruits Of A Democracy. You Will In Due Season Have Great Impatience Of Public Burdens, Combined In Due Season With Great Increase Of Public Expenditure. You Will In Due Season Have Wars Entered Into From Passion And Not From Reason; And You Will In Due Season Submit To Peace Ignominiously Sought And Ignominiously Obtained, Which Will Diminish Your Authority And Perhaps Endanger Your Independence. You Will In Due Season Find Your Property Is Less Valuable, And Your Freedom Less Complete.

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

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

I Will Not Go Down To Posterity Talking Bad Grammar.

Quit The World, And The World Forgets You.

There Is No Diplomacy Like Silence.

The Praise Of A Fool Is Incense To The Wisest Of Us . . .

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

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.

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

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

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

Democracies Have

What We Call Public Opinion Is Generally Public Sentiment.

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

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

Youth Is The Trustee Of Prosperity.

The Fool Wonders, The Wise Man Asks.

Proverbs Were Anterior To Boots, And Formed The Wisdom Of The Vulgar, And In The Earliest Ages Were The Unwritten Laws Of Morality.

Candor Is The Brightest Gem Of Criticism.

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.

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.

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.

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

I Must Follow The People. Am I Not Their Leader?

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

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

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

We Make Our Own Fortune And Call It Destiny.

Luck Is What A Capricious Man Believes In.

Almost Everything That Is Great Has Been Done By Youth.

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

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.

Adventures Are To The Adventurous.

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

The Originality Of A Subject Is In Its Treatment.

Novelty Is An Essential Attribute Of The Beautiful.

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.

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

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

Where Knowledge Ends, Religion Begins.

The Palace Is Not Safe When The Cottage Is Not Happy.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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 Ruled By Other People, Than People Believe To Know.

Tobacco Is The Tomb Of Love.

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

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

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

I Think That An Author Who Speaks About His Own Books Is Almost As Bad As A Mother Who Talks About Her Own Children.

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.

Every Moment Is Travel - If Understood.

Amusement To An Observing Mind Is Study.

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

Principle Is Ever My Motto, No Expediency.

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

Everything Comes If A Man Will Only Wait.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

A Practical Man Is A Man Who Practices The Errors Of His Forefathers.

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

Judaism Is Not Complete Without Christianity And Without Judaism, Christianity Would Not Exist.

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

Lady Lytton Rules Her Husband, But That I Suppose Is Always The Case Where Marriages Are What Is Called 'happy'.

Nature, Like Man, Sometimes Weeps From Gladness.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

There Is No Greater Sin Than To Be Trop Prononce.

A Parsimony Of Words Prodigal Of Sense.

No Government Can Be Long Secure Without A Formidable Opposition.

Great Men Never Require Experience.

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

Variety Is The Mother Of Enjoyment.

Eloquence Is The Child Of Knowledge.

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

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.

Without Tact You Can Learn Nothing.

Party Is Organized Opinion.

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

Real Politics Are The Possession And Distribution Of Power.

Distribution Of Power

Modern Science Has Vindicated The Natural Equality Of Man.

Difficulties Melt Away Under Tact.

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

Nature Is Stronger Than Education.

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

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

Cleanliness And Order Are Not Matters Of Instinct; They Are Matters Of Education, And Like Most Great Things, You Must Cultivate A Taste For Them.

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

Finality Is Not The Language Of Politics.

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

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

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

Here's To The Man Who Rode The Race, Who Took The Time, Who Kept The Time, And Who Did The Trick.

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

Conquer The World

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

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

In Politics, Nothing Is Contemptible.

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

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

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.

William Gladstone Has Not A Single Redeeming Defect.

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

Everything In This World Depends Upon Will.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Despair Is The Conclusion Of Fools.

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

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

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

Duty Cannot Exist Without Faith

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

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.

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

The Tendency Of An Advanced Civilization Is In Truth Monarchy.

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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.

The People Of England Are The Most Enthusiastic In The World.

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

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.

Age Is Frequently Beautiful, Wisdom Appearing Like An Aftermath.

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.

Great Countries Are Those That Produce Great People.

The Expected Always Happens

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

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.

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

The Noble Lord Is The Rupert Of Debate.

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

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.

Great Men Should Think Of Opportunity And Not Of Time. That Is The Excuse Of Feeble And Puzzled Spirits.

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.

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

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.

As Men Advance In Life, All Passions Resolve Themselves Into Money. Love, Ambition, Even Poetry, End In This.

Trending Author

Khaled Hosseini

Janet Napolitano

Genevieve Gorder

Category