Benjamin Disraeli: Trending quotes (page 11)

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Benjamin Disraeli: 612   quotes 320   likes

“At present the peace of the world has been preserved, not by statesmen, but by capitalists.”

Source: Letter to Mrs. Sarah Brydges Willyams (17 October 1863), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (London: John Murray, 1929), p. 73

“He was fresh and full of faith that "something would turn up."”

Bk. III, Ch. 6.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)

“Finality, Sir, is not the language of politics.”

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1859/feb/28/leave in the House of Commons (28 February 1859).
1850s

“That fatal drollery called a representative government.”

Bk. II, Ch. 13.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)

“Lord Salisbury and myself have brought you back peace, but a peace, I hope, with honour which may satisfy our Sovereign, and tend to the welfare of the country.”

Source: From the window of 10 Downing Street, after arriving from Dover (16 July 1878), quoted in 'Return Of Lord Beaconsfield And Lord Salisbury', The Times (17 July 1878), p. 5.

“It is vital to your Majesty's authority and power at this critical moment, that the Canal should belong to England.”

Source: Letter to Queen Victoria (18 November 1875), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 783

“[I]n speaking of Italy, romance has omitted for once to exaggerate.”

Source: Letter to Isaac Disraeli (2 September 1826), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 104

“What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance the most astounding? That question is this—Is man an ape or an angel? My lord, I am on the side of the angels.”

Variant: The question is this— Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence these new fanged theories.
Variant: Is man an ape or an angel? Now, I am on the side of the angels!
Source: Speech at Oxford Diocesan Conference (25 November 1864), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (1929), p. 108

“A series of congratulatory regrets.”

Source: Lord Hartington's Resolutions on the Berlin Treaty (30 July 1878).

“I rather like bad wine," said Mr. Mountchesney; "one gets so bored with good wine.”

Book 1, chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845)

“Amusement to an observing mind is study.”

Part 1, Chapter 23.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Contarini Fleming (1832)

“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.”

Undated letter to Rosina Bulwer Lytton, cited in Andre Maurois, Disraeli: A Picture of the Victorian Age (1927), p. 114.
Sourced but undated

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

Actually a line from Martin Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy.
Misattributed

“A majority is always the best repartee.”

Bk. II, Ch. 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)

“The very phrase "foreign affairs" makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to treat of subjects with which he has no concern.”

Source: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume II. 1860–1881 (London: John Murray, 1929), p. 531.

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

In response to a man who asked Disraeli "What is the difference between a misfortune and a calamity?" cited in Wilfrid Meynell, Benjamin Disraeli: An Unconventional Biography (1903), p. 146.
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