Benjamin Disraeli

What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.

Individuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.
Benjamin Disraeli - Speech, Edinburgh (1867)
Change is inevitable. In a progressive country change is constant.

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.

A precedent embalms a principle.

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

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.

No government can be long secure without formidable opposition.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

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.

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.
Benjamin Disraeli - Speech in the House of Commons, Mar. 3, 1845
A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.

It is easier to be critical than correct.

Bore: one who has the power of speech but not the capacity for conversation.

When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize.

The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.

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.

Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error.

Ignorance never settles a question.

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

A man can know nothing of mankind without knowing something of himself. Self-knowledge is the property of that man whose passions have their full play, but who ponders over their results.
Benjamin Disraeli - speech, January 24, 1860
How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forgo an advantage.

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

We make our fortunes and call them fate.
Benjamin Disraeli - campaign speech at High Wycombe, England, November 27, 1832
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.

The secret of success is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.

Great services are not canceled by one act or by one single error.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.

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.

The hare-brained chatter of irresponsible frivolity.
Benjamin Disraeli - Sybil, 1845
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.

As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, and opening quotation is a symphony precluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize.

Nurture your mind with great thoughts for you will never go any higher than what you think.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
Benjamin Disraeli - Speech at the House of Commons, January 24, 1860
How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

The secret of success is constancy of purpose.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

- Benjamin Disraeli