Quotes By Benjamin Disraeli

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

What we anticipate seldom occurs: but what we least expect generally happens.

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

Success is the child of audacity.

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

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.

Little things affect little minds.

Nowadays, manners are easy and life is hard.

The services in wartime are fit only for desperadoes, but in peace are only fit for fools.

To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder.

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed.

If you're not very clever you should be conciliatory.

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.

London is a modern Babylon.

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

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

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.

I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

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

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

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.

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

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

There is no education like adversity.