Quotes By Benjamin Disraeli

Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.

The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.

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

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

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

London is a roost for every bird.

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

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

An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

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

There is no education like adversity.

A precedent embalms a principle.

Finality is not the language of politics.

Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet.

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.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

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

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

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

Without publicity there can be no public support, and without public support every nation must decay.

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

Nobody is forgotten when it is convenient to remember him.