All Quotes

"Thought is the property of him who can entertain it, and of him who can adequately place it."

"What point of morals, of manners, of economy, of philosophy, of religion, of taste, of the conduct of life, has he not settled? What mystery has he not signified his knowledge of? What office, or function, or district of man's work, has he not remembered? What king has he not taught state, as Talma taught Napoleon? What maiden has not found him finer than her delicacy? What lover has he not outloved? What sage has he not outseen? What gentleman has he not instructed in the rudeness of his behavior?"

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

"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."

"Whoever fights, whoever falls, Justice conquers evermore."

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

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

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

"They that touch pitch will be defiled."

"We are never without a pilot. When we know not how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail, we can drift. The current knows the way, though we do not. The ship of heaven guides itself, and will not accept a wooden rudder."

"To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven."

"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.""

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

"There is no education like adversity."

"Without tact you can learn nothing."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"The sweet simplicity of the three per cents."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"He has not a single redeeming defect."

"Where knowledge ends, religion begins."

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

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

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

"Diligence is the mother of good fortune."

"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."

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

"Candour is the brightest gem of criticism."

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

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

"Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation."

"The art of governing mankind by deceiving them."

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

"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."

"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."