Quotes by Disraeli, Benjamin

"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on inhibition   

"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on inspiration
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"Justice is truth in action."

Disraeli, Benjamin on justice
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"When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken."

Disraeli, Benjamin on law and lawyers   

"No affection and a great brain, these are the people to command the world."

Disraeli, Benjamin on leadership   

"I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?"

Disraeli, Benjamin on leadership
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"A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning."

Disraeli, Benjamin on learning   

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

Disraeli, Benjamin on learning   

"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on liberals   

"Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own."

Disraeli, Benjamin on liberals   

"Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor."

Disraeli, Benjamin on life   

"We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end."

Disraeli, Benjamin on love
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"The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end."

Disraeli, Benjamin on love
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"To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them."

Disraeli, Benjamin on management   

"Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard."

Disraeli, Benjamin on manners   

"It destroys one's nerve to be amiable every day to the same human being."

Disraeli, Benjamin on marriage
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"Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe."

Disraeli, Benjamin on mediocrity   

"Little things affect little minds."

Disraeli, Benjamin on mediocrity   

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"We moralize among ruins."

Disraeli, Benjamin on morality   

"Nationality is the miracle of political independence; race is the principle of physical analogy."

Disraeli, Benjamin on nations   

"Great countries are those that produce great people."

Disraeli, Benjamin on nations   

"Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness."

Disraeli, Benjamin on nature   

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"In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of co-operation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbors. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves; modern society acknowledges no neighbor."

Disraeli, Benjamin on neighbors   

"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on news   

"Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing."

Disraeli, Benjamin on opinions   

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

Disraeli, Benjamin on opportunity
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"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on opposition   

"You behold a range of exhausted volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest."

Disraeli, Benjamin on parliament   

"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on peace   

"Plagiarists at least have the quality of preservation."

Disraeli, Benjamin on plagiarism   

"I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best."

Disraeli, Benjamin on planning   

"The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics
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"A Conservative government is an organized hypocrisy."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics   

"A majority is always better than the best repartee."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics   

"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."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics   

"Finality is not the language of politics."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics   

"In politics, nothing is contemptible."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics
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"No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics   

"The art of governing mankind by deceiving them."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics   

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"There is no gambling like politics. Nothing in which the power of circumstance is more evident."

Disraeli, Benjamin on politics