Experience is the child of Thought, and Thought is the child of Action. We cannot learn men from books.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Vivian Grey
A precedent embalms a principle.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Feb. 22, 1848
Never take anything for granted.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Oct. 5, 1864
Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Coningsby
Justice is truth in action.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Feb. 11, 1851
Time is the great physician.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Endymion
The Disappointment of Manhood succeeds to the delusion of Youth: let us hope that the heritage of Old Age is not Despair.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Vivian Grey
My idea of an agreeable person ... is a person who agrees with me.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Lothair
The Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.
An author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Nov. 19, 1873
Finality is not the language of politics.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Feb. 28, 1859
Party is organized opinion.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Nov. 25, 1864
A majority is always the best repartee.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Tancred
Power has only one duty -- to secure the social welfare of the People.
The depositary of power is always unpopular.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Coningsby
Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Coningsby
Little things affect little minds.
The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can never end.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
Change is inevitable in a progressive society. Change is constant.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech, Oct. 29, 1867
What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Henrietta Temple
Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, attributed, How We Live: Then and Now
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.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech to House of Commons, Jun. 5, 1848
London is a roost for every bird.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Lothair
Silence is the mother of Truth.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Tancred
Predominant opinions are generally opinions of the generation that is vanishing.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, attributed, Day's Collacon
Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, attributed, Day's Collacon
While we enforced the neutrality which we prepared to observe, we declared at the same time that that neutrality must cease if British interests were assailed or menaced. Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own, have denounced this policy as a selfish policy. My Lord Mayor, it is as selfish as patriotism.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech at the Guildhall, London, November 9, 1877
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.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech in the House of Commons, August 30, 1848
As a general rule, nobody has money who ought to have it.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Endymion
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Sybil: Or, The Two Nations
The golden hour of invention must terminate like other hours, and when the man of genius returns to the cares, the duties, the vexations, and the amusements of life, his companions behold him as one of themselves--the creature of habits and infirmities.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, Literary Character of Men of Genius
Success is the child of Audacity.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI, The Rise of Iskander
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