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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.

-Benjamin Disraeli

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You Know, All Is

Benjamin Disraeli

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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.

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Modern Science Has Vindicated The Natural Equality Of Man.

Great Men Never Require Experience.

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

Nature Has Given Us Two Ears But Only One Mouth.

Apologies Only Account For That Which They Do Not Alter.

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.

Ignorance Never Settles A Question.

The Press Is Not Only Free, It Is Powerful. That Power Is Ours. It Is The Proudest That Man Can Enjoy.

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

Demagogues And Agitators Are Very Unpleasant, They Are Incidental To A Free And Constitutional Country, And You Must Put Up With These Inconveniences Or Do Without Many Important Advantages.

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

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

There Is No Greater Sin Than To Be Trop Prononce.

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

Beauty And Health Are The Chief Sources Of Happiness.

Source Of Happiness

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

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

Turtle Makes All Men Equal.

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

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

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

Genius, When Young, Is Divine.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Luck Is What A Capricious Man Believes In.

News Is That Which Comes From The North, East, West And South, And If It Comes From Only One Point On The Compass, Then It Is A Class; Publication And Not News.

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

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

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

We Are Indeed A Nation Of Shopkeepers.

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.

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.

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

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.

Plagiarists, At Least, Have The Merit Of Preservation.

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

The Expected Always Happens

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

The Profound Thinker Always Suspects That He Is Superficial.

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

Small Things Affects Small Minds.

Every Production Of Genius Must Be The Production Of Enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm For Life

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

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

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

Meditation Is Culture.

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

Be Thine Own Privy Counsellor.

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

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.

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.

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

Eloquence Is The Child Of Knowledge.

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

Never Complain And Never Explain.

Nurture Your Mind With Great Thoughts

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

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

A Man's Fate Is His Own Temper.

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

Without Tact You Can Learn Nothing.

London; A Nation, Not A City.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Silence Is The Mother Of Truth.

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.

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.

The Noble Lord Is The Rupert Of Debate.

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

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.

Action May Not Always Bring Happiness; But There Is No Happiness Without Action.

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.

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.

Without Tact You Can Learn Nothing. Tact Teaches You When To Be Silent. Inquirers Who Are Always Questioning Never Learn Anything.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Nowadays, Manners Are Easy And Life Is Hard.

The World Is A Wheel, And It Will All Come Round Right.

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

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.

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.

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.

Man Is More Powerful Than Matter.

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

All My Successes Have Been Built On My Failures.

Failure Inspirational

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

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

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

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.

Nature Is Stronger Than Education.

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.

I Will Sit Down Now, But The Time Will Come When You Will Hear Me.

One Event Makes Another. What We Anticipate Seldom Occurs; What We Least Expected Generally Happens; And Time Can Only Prove Which Is Most For Our Advantage.

Departure Should Be Sudden.

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.

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.

A Majority Is Always Better Than The Best Repartee.

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

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

The Unfortunate Are Always Egotistical.

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

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

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

The Difference Between Talent And Genius Is This: While The Former Usually Develops Some Special Branch Of Our Faculties, The Latter Commands Them All. When The Former Is Combined With Tact, It Is Often More Than A Match For The Latter.

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

I Will Not Go Down To Posterity Talking Bad Grammar.

What We Call Public Opinion Is Generally Public Sentiment.

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

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

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 To Short To Be Small.

There Is Moderation Even In Excess.

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

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

War Is Never A Solution; It Is An Aggravation.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Where Knowledge Ends, Religion Begins.

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

William Gladstone Has Not A Single Redeeming Defect.

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

Change Is Constant In A Progressive Country.

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

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

Almost Everything That Is Great Has Been Done By Youth.

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

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

Party Is Organized Opinion.

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

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

We Are Taught Words, Not Ideas.

I Believe Absence Is A Great Element Of Charm.

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

Candor Is The Brightest Gem Of Criticism.

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 Magic Of First Love Is Our Ignorance That It Can Ever End.

The Essence Of Education Is The Education Of The Body.

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

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.

Terror Has Its Inspiration, As Well As Competition.

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

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.

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

Poverty Has Its Duties As Well As Its Rights.

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

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

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

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

World Government

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

To A Mother, A Child Is Everything; But To A Child, A Parent Is Only A Link In The Chain Of Her Existence.

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

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

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.

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 Can Be Economy Only Where There Is Efficiency.

Principle Is Ever My Motto, No Expediency.

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

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

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

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

Great Confidence

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.

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

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

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

Female Friendships Are Of Rapid Growth.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

We Make Our Fortunes And We Call Them Fate.

Destiny Is Our Will, And Our Will Is Nature.

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

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

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.

The Secret Of Success Is Constancy To Purpose.

The Depositary Of Power Is Always Unpopular.

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