Benjamin Disraeli

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

"Ärlighet varar längst."

"Disraeli added certain features peculiarly his own to the pattern with which he was to stamp the Conservative party, and these enhanced the contrast with Gladstonian liberalism: belief in empire; adoption of a tough, "no nonsense", foreign policy; assertion of Britain's...greatness in the world. Disraeli was unsympathetic to all forms of nationalism except English nationalism – this was quite compatible with being most unEnglish himself – and he saw no reason, whether in Ireland or the Balkans or elsewhere, to allow what he considered English interests to be overridden by the supposedly higher moral law that encourages the emancipation of nations "rightly struggling to be free". ... His attitude decisively orientated the Conservative party for many years to come, and the tradition which he started was probably a bigger electoral asset in winning working-class support during the last quarter of the century than anything else."

"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."

"Time and time again the stories we read about Disraeli's demeanour, dress and conversation remind us not so much of the grave sedate bourgeois England that he was destined to govern as of the England which flourished ten years after his death – the England of the Yellow Book and Oscar Wilde. Wilde acknowledged his debt. It was no accident that he chose the title of Dorian Gray for one of his most extravagant books, and his own famous epigrams might well, without incongruity, have appeared in the pages of a Disraeli novel."

"The sweet simplicity of the three per cents."

"There is no education like adversity."

"He has not a single redeeming defect."

"Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it: he that fears otherwise, gives advantage to the danger."

"The more extensive an author's knowledge of what has been done, the greater will be his power of knowing what to do."

"Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe."

"Whenever 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."

"Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann!"

"The more you are talked about the less powerful you are."

"I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will that will stake even existence for its fulfilment."

"Real politics are the possession and distribution of power."

"If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory."

"Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones."

"No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married."

"The young Prince Leopold has the nose of a fairytale prince who has been enchanted by an evil witch."

"If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."

"They that touch pitch will be defiled."

"Under this roof are the heads of the family of Rothschild a name famous in every capital of Europe and every division of the globe. If you like, we shall divide the United States into two parts, one for you, James, and one for you, Lionel. Napoleon will do exactly and all that I shall advise him to do; and to Bismark will be suggested such an intoxicating programme as to make him our abject slave."

"Candour is the brightest gem of criticism."

"Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm."

"The art of governing mankind by deceiving them."

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

"He was quite remarkable enough to fill a volume of Éloge. Someone wrote to me yesterday that no Jew for 1800 years has played so great a part in the world. That would be no Jew since St. Paul; and it is very startling."

"Toryism, as we know it, was illuminated, expounded, and made a gospel for a large portion of this country by the genius of Benjamin Disraeli. Most of us who have worked for our great party have founded our beliefs on, and derived our inspiration from that statesman."

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

"Without tact you can learn nothing."

"An insular country, subject to fogs, and with a powerful middle class, requires grave statesmen."

"The Athanasian Creed is the most splendid ecclesiastical lyric ever poured forth by the genius of man."

"As for our majority... one is enough."

"The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right."

"As for that," said Waldenshare, "sensible men are all of the same religion." "Pray, what is that?" inquired the Prince. "Sensible men never tell."

"There is no gambling like politics."

"Miss Sands told me that Queen Victoria, who was latterly éprise with Disraeli, one day asked him what was his real religion. "Madam," he replied, "I am the blank page between the Old Testament and the New.""

"We are the children of the gods, and are never more the slaves of circumstance than when we deem ourselves their masters. What may next happen in the dazzling farce of life, the Fates only know."

"He told Lord Esher that, in talking with the Queen, he observed a simple rule: "I never deny; I never contradict; I sometimes forget.""

"If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune; and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity."

"Where knowledge ends, religion begins."

"Everyone likes flattery, and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel."

"There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics."

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune."

"Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most."

"The choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation."

"John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich: "Foote, I have often wondered what catastrophe would bring you to your end; but I think, that you must either die of the pox, or the halter." Samuel Foote: "My lord, that will depend upon one of two contingencies; -- whether I embrace your lordship's mistress, or your lordship's principles.""

"You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public men."