Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, was a British politician of the Conservative Party who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies and its broad outreach. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He is the only British prime minister to have been of Jewish birth. He was also a novelist, publishing works of fiction even as prime minister.
Disraeli was born in Bloomsbury, then a part of Middlesex. His father left Judaism after a dispute at his synagogue; young Benjamin became an Anglican at the age of 12. After several unsuccessful attempts, Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837. In 1846 the Prime Minister at the time, Sir Robert Peel, split the party over his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, which involved ending the tariff on imported grain. Disraeli clashed with Peel in the House of Commons. Disraeli became a major figure in the party. When Lord Derby, the party leader, thrice formed governments in the 1850s and 1860s, Disraeli served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
Upon Derby's retirement in 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister briefly before losing that year's general election. He returned to the Opposition, before leading the party to winning a majority in the 1874 general election. He maintained a close friendship with Queen Victoria, who in 1876 appointed him Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraeli's second term was dominated by the Eastern Question—the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire and the desire of other European powers, such as Russia, to gain at its expense. Disraeli arranged for the British to purchase a major interest in the Suez Canal Company . In 1878, faced with Russian victories against the Ottomans, he worked at the Congress of Berlin to obtain peace in the Balkans at terms favourable to Britain and unfavourable to Russia, its longstanding enemy. This diplomatic victory over Russia established Disraeli as one of Europe's leading statesmen.
World events thereafter moved against the Conservatives. Controversial wars in Afghanistan and South Africa undermined his public support. He angered British farmers by refusing to reinstitute the Corn Laws in response to poor harvests and cheap imported grain. With Gladstone conducting a massive speaking campaign, his Liberals defeated Disraeli's Conservatives at the 1880 general election. In his final months, Disraeli led the Conservatives in Opposition. He had throughout his career written novels, beginning in 1826, and he published his last completed novel, Endymion, shortly before he died at the age of 76.
Wikipedia
“He has not a single redeeming defect.”
On William Ewart Gladstone; attributed in William S. Walsh, Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities (1892), p. 357.
Sourced but undated
The Infernal Marriage, part 3 (1834).
Books
Letter to Lady Chesterfield (22 December 1880), quoted in the Marquis of Zetland (ed.), The Letters of Disraeli to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield. Vol. II, 1876 to 1881 (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1929), p. 305.
1880s
“There can be no economy where there is no efficiency.”
Source: Letter to Constituents (3 October 1868), cited in Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Collected from his Writings and Speeches (1881), p. 110.
“Nothing is going on, but everybody is afraid of something.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 2.
“They that touch pitch will be defiled.”
Actually spoken by Dogberry in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (III.3). The KJV Bible (Ecclesiasticus 13:1) has "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith".
Misattributed
“The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.”
Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, "Quotation".
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli
Variant: The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.
Book VI, Chapter 7.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)
Address to the electors of Buckinghamshire (25 May 1847), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (London: John Murray, 1929), p. 838.
1840s
“Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of Grief the blunder of a life.”
Book VI, Chapter 7.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)
Reported as a misattribution in Bernard Glassman, Benjamin Disraeli: The Fabricated Jew in Myth and Memory (2003), p. 185.
Misattributed
Source: Letter to Lady Chesterfield (19 July 1880), quoted in the Marquis of Zetland (ed.), The Letters of Disraeli to Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield. Vol. II, 1876 to 1881 (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1929), p. 282.
“Mediocrity can talk; but it is for genius to observe.”
Isaac D'Israeli, The Curiosities of Literature, "Men of Genius Deficient in Conversation".
Misattributed, Isaac D'Israeli
“Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth.”
Book 6, chapter 24.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
Sidonia speaking
Book 4, Chap. 15.
Books, Coningsby (1844)
“All is race, there is no other truth.”
Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography (1852), p. 331.
1850s
Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1862/aug/01/the-administration-of-viscount in the House of Commons (1 August 1862).
Source: Speech on Reform Bill of 1867, Edinburgh, Scotland (29 October 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. 289.
“You know who critics are?— the men who have failed in literature and art.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 35. Compare: "Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics", Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, p. 36. Delivered 1811–1812; "Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thief-taker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic", Percy Bysshe Shelley, Fragments of Adonais.
“The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 70.
Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography (1852), p. 496.
1850s
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.
Sourced but undated
Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1881/mar/04/candahar-resolution in the House of Lords (4 March 1881).
“The more you are talked about the less powerful you are.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 36.
“There is no index of character so sure as the voice.”
Bk. II, Ch. 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)
“Nobody is forgotten, when it is convenient to remember him.”
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.
“Fear makes us feel our humanity.”
Book III, Chapter 6.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)
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
Source: Speech of 9 November 1867.
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.
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 23.
“If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 85.
“London is a roost for every bird.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 11.
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 29.
Book V, Chapter 6.
Books, Coningsby (1844), The Young Duke (1831)
“Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.”
Book 2, chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
Bk. III, Ch. 4.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1849/feb/01/address-in-answer-to-the-speech in the House of Commons (1 February 1849).
1840s
Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1850/may/14/foreign-corn in the House of Commons (14 May 1850).
1850s
“The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 17.
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
“He seems to think that posterity is a pack-horse, always ready to be loaded.”
Speech in the House of Commons (3 June 1862)
1860s
“Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.”
The 'Advertisement' to the 1853 edition.
Books, Coningsby (1844), The Young Duke (1831)
“There is moderation even in excess.”
Book VI, Chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)
“We are indeed a nation of shopkeepers.”
Book I, Chapter 11.
Books, Coningsby (1844), The Young Duke (1831)
Source: Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1873/mar/11/second-reading-adjourned-debate in the House of Commons (11 March 1873).
