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Benjamin Disraeli Quotes
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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  

✵ 21. December 1804 – 19. April 1881
Benjamin Disraeli photo
Benjamin Disraeli: 306 quotes320 likes

Benjamin Disraeli Quotes

“He has not a single redeeming defect.”

Benjamin Disraeli

On William Ewart Gladstone; attributed in William S. Walsh, Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities (1892), p. 357.
Sourced but undated

“Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.”

Benjamin Disraeli

The Infernal Marriage, part 3 (1834).
Books

“I receive letters every day asking me to write a manifesto and make a speech; that I am the only man who could do so with effect; and all that. Why should I? I warned the country about Ireland before the General Election and told them to be vigilant, or there would be something happen there, "worse even than famine or pestilence". It has happened. And there have been elections since the Irish Revolution in England, Wales and Scotland, and they have supported the policy of imbecility and treason that has brought about all this disaster.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Letter to Constituents (3 October 1868), cited in Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, Collected from his Writings and Speeches (1881), p. 110.

“Never take anything for granted.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech at Salthill (5 October 1864).
1860s

“Nothing is going on, but everybody is afraid of something.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 2.

“They that touch pitch will be defiled.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.

“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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book VI, Chapter 7.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)

“It is unnecessary for me to state that I shall support all those measures, the object of which is to elevate the moral and social condition of the Working Classes, by lessening their hours of toil—by improving their means of health—and by cultivating their intelligence. These are objects which, it is not unpleasing for me to remember, I endeavoured, in common with some of my friends, to advance, before they engaged the attention of Governments, or were supported by triumphant Parliamentary majorities.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book VI, Chapter 7.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)

“Under this roof are the heads of the family of Rothschild a name famous in every capital of Europe and every division of the globe. If you like, we shall divide the United States into two parts, one for you, James, and one for you, Lionel. Napoleon will do exactly and all that I shall advise him to do; and to Bismark will be suggested such an intoxicating programme as to make him our abject slave.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Reported as a misattribution in Bernard Glassman, Benjamin Disraeli: The Fabricated Jew in Myth and Memory (2003), p. 185.
Misattributed

“Here everything is dark. A series of storms has destroyed all our hopes which were full of promise. A plentiful hay harvest drowned and the finest wheat the farmers have had for years all laid. It is a scene of ravage, of havoc like a conquered country. It is the last drop in the bitter cup which the landed interest will have to swallow. … As for politics, Gladstone will be as fatal to the aristocracy as the weather; and if he were younger the Crown would not be safe.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book 6, chapter 24.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)

“The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Speech of 1877-06-24
1870s

“So you see, my dear Coningsby, that the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Sidonia speaking
Book 4, Chap. 15.
Books, Coningsby (1844)

“All is race, there is no other truth.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Lord George Bentinck: A Political Biography (1852), p. 331.
1850s

“To build up a community, not upon Liberal opinions, which any man may fashion to his fancy, but upon popular principles, which assert equal rights, civil and religious; to uphold the institutions of the country because they are the embodiment of the wants and wishes of the nation, and protect us alike from individual tyranny and popular outrage; equally to resist democracy and oligarchy; and favour that principle of free aristocracy which is the only basis and security for constitutional government; to be vigilant to guard and prompt to vindicate the honour of the country, but to hold aloof from that turbulent diplomacy which only distracts the mind of a people from internal improvement; to lighten taxation; frugally but wisely to administer the public treasure; to favour popular education, because it is the best guarantee for public order; to defend local government; and to be as jealous of the rights of the working man as of the prerogatives of the Crown and the privileges of the Senate—these were once the principles which regulated Tory statesmen, and I for one have no wish that the Tory party should ever be in power unless they practise them.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1862/aug/01/the-administration-of-viscount in the House of Commons (1 August 1862).

“I had to prepare the mind of the country, and to educate…our party. … I had to prepare the mind of Parliament and the country on this question of Reform.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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

“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

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

Benjamin Disraeli

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

“My Lords, the key of India is not Merv, or Herat, or Candahar. The key of India is London. The majesty of sovereignty, the spirit and vigour of your Parliaments, the inexhaustible resources of a free, an ingenious, and a determined people—these are the keys of India.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 36.

“There is no index of character so sure as the voice.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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

“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.

“Fear makes us feel our humanity.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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

“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.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

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.

“"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.

“London is a roost for every bird.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 11.

“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)

“Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book 2, chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)

“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)

“A majority is always the best repartee.”

Benjamin Disraeli

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

“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

“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

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

Benjamin Disraeli

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

“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&ndash;1881 (London: John Murray, 1929), p. 96

“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

“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)

“There is moderation even in excess.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book VI, Chapter 1.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)

“We are indeed a nation of shopkeepers.”

Benjamin Disraeli

Book I, Chapter 11.
Books, Coningsby (1844), The Young Duke (1831)

“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).