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Quotations by Benjamin Disraeli 156 Found Born: Friday, December 21, 1804 A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy. A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance. 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. A majority is always better than the best repartee. 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. A precedent embalms a principle. A University should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning. Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. Adventures are to the adventurous. Almost everything that is great has been done by youth. An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children. As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information. As for our majority... one is enough. Assassination has never changed the history of the world. Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones. Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds. Change is inevitable. Change is constant. Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed. Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power. Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent. Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future. Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke. Damn your principles! Stick to your party. Despair is the conclusion of fools. Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius. Diligence is the mother of good fortune. Duty cannot exist without faith. Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful. Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm. Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel. Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action. 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. Fear makes us feel our humanity. Finality is not the language of politics. Frank and explicit - that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others. Genius, when young, is divine. Great countries are those that produce great people. Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life. He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong. How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct. I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best. I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded. 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 which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment. I must follow the people. Am I not their leader? I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget. 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. I say that justice is truth in action. If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. No one has the right to go croaking about society, or what is worse, looking as if he stifled grief. If you're not very clever you should be conciliatory. In a progressive country change is constant; change is inevitable.
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