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Benjamin Disraeli: 612 quotes320 likes

“I remember—the interruption of the hon. Gentleman reminds me of the words of a great writer, who said that "Grace was beauty in action." Sir, I say that justice is truth in action. Truth should animate an opposition, and I hope it does animate this opposition.;”

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1851/feb/11/agricultural-distress in the House of Commons (2 February 1851). <br class="br">1850s

“You have despoiled Churches. You have threatened every corporation and endowment in the country. You have examined into everybody's affairs. You have criticized every profession and vexed every trade. No one is certain of his property, and nobody knows what duties he may have to perform tomorrow. This is the policy of confiscation as compared with that of concurrent endowment.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1873/mar/11/second-reading-adjourned-debate in the House of Commons (11 March 1873).

“Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.”

Benjamin Disraeli

The 'Advertisement' to the 1853 edition.
Books, Coningsby (1844), The Young Duke (1831)

“He seems to think that posterity is a pack-horse, always ready to be loaded.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech in the House of Commons (3 June 1862)
1860s

“A wise Government, allying itself with religion, would, as it were, consecrate society and sanctify the State. But how is this to be done? It is the problem of modern politics which has always most embarrassed statesmen. No solution of the difficulty can be found in salaried priesthoods and complicated concordats. But by the side of the State in England there has gradually arisen a majestic corporation wealthy, powerful, independent with the sanctity of a long tradition, yet sympathising with authority, and full of conciliation, even deference, to the civil power. Broadly and deeply planted in the land, mixed up with all our manners and customs, one of the main guarantees of our local government, and therefore one of the prime securities of our common liberties, the Church of England is part of our history, part of our life, part of England itself.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Speech in Aylesbury (14 November 1861), 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. 96

“The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 17.

“Why, I say, that to tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection; it is plunder, and I entirely disclaim it; but I ask you to protect the rights and interests of labour generally in the first place, by allowing no free imports from countries which meet you with countervailing duties; and, in the second place, with respect to agricultural produce, to compensate the soil for the burdens from which other classes are free by an equivalent duty. This is my view of what is called "protection."”

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1850/may/14/foreign-corn in the House of Commons (14 May 1850). <br class="br">1850s

“But he has left us the legacy of heroes—the memory of his great name, and the inspiration of his great example.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1849/feb/01/address-in-answer-to-the-speech in the House of Commons (1 February 1849). <br class="br">1840s

“The view of Jerusalem is the history of the world; it is more, it is the history of earth and of heaven.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Bk. III, Ch. 4.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)

“For what is the Tory party unless it represents national feeling? If it does not represent national feeling, Toryism is nothing. It does not depend upon hereditary coteries of exclusive nobles. It does not attempt power by attracting to itself the spurious force which may accidentally arise from advocating cosmopolitan principles or talking cosmopolitan jargon. The Tory party is nothing unless it represent and uphold the institutions of the country.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Speech at Mansion House (7 August 1867), 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. 287

“I see before me the statue of a celebrated minister, who said that confidence was a plant of slow growth. But I believe, however gradual may be the growth of confidence, that of credit requires still more time to arrive at maturity.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Speech of 9 November 1867.

“As for our majority… one is enough.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 64.

“"But they deserve their wealth," he added, "nobody grudges it to them. I declare when I was eating that truffle, I felt a glow about my heart that, if it were not indigestion, I think must have been gratitude; though that is an article I had not believed in.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 23.

“If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 85.

“Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine- tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 29.

“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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book V, Chapter 6.
Books, Coningsby (1844), The Young Duke (1831)

“Fear makes us feel our humanity.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book III, Chapter 6.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)

“Nobody is forgotten, when it is convenient to remember him.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Letter to Lord Stanhope (17 July 1870), cited in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, Vol. 5 (1920), p. 123-125.

“The Jews represent the Semitic principle; all that is spiritual in our nature. They are the trustees of tradition, and the conservators of the religious element. They are a living and the most striking evidence of the falsity of that pernicious doctrine of modern times, the natural equality of man. The political equality of a particular race is a matter of municipal arrangement and depends entirely on political considerations and circumstances; but the natural equality of man now in vogue, and taking the form of cosmopolitan fraternity, is a principle which, were it possible to act on it, would deteriorate the great races and destroy all the genius of the world. What would be the consequence on the great Anglo-Saxon republic, for example, were its citizens to secede from their sound principle of reserve, and mingle with their negro and coloured populations? In the course of time they would become so deteriorated that their states would probably be reconquered and regained by the aborigines whom they have expelled and who would then be their superiors.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography (1852), p. 496.
1850s

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

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 70.