Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, was a British statesman, novelist, and literary figure. He was born on December 21, 1804, in London, England, to a Jewish family of modest means. Disraeli rose to prominence in the mid-19th century, serving twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and playing a key role in the country’s political and social development during that time.
Disraeli began his career as a novelist, publishing several successful works, including “Vivian Grey” and “Coningsby.” However, he soon turned his attention to politics, becoming a member of the British Parliament in 1837. He quickly made a name for himself as an orator and debater, earning a reputation as one of the most gifted speakers of his time.
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Disraeli was a member of the Conservative Party, and he became a close ally of its leader, Lord Derby. In 1852, Derby became Prime Minister, and Disraeli was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Although Derby’s government only lasted a few months, Disraeli remained a key figure in the Conservative Party, and he served as Leader of the House of Commons under Derby’s second administration in 1858.
In 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister himself, leading a Conservative government that introduced significant social and political reforms. Among the most notable of these was the 1870 Education Act, which established a system of state-funded elementary schools in England and Wales. Disraeli also oversaw the extension of voting rights to working-class men, a move that helped to broaden the country’s political base.
Despite these achievements, Disraeli’s tenure as Prime Minister was not without controversy. He was a staunch advocate of imperialism and believed in the importance of expanding the British Empire. In 1876, he oversaw the purchase of a controlling interest in the Suez Canal, a move that was widely criticized at the time.
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Disraeli served a second term as Prime Minister from 1874 to 1880. During this time, he continued to pursue his imperial ambitions, culminating in the Berlin Conference of 1878, where he played a key role in the division of Africa among European powers. However, his government was weakened by a series of economic crises, and he was defeated in the 1880 general election.
Disraeli’s health declined rapidly after leaving office, and he died on April 19, 1881, at the age of 76. He is remembered as one of the most colorful and influential figures in British political history, and his novels and writings continue to be read and studied to this day.
Below are his best quotes about love, politics, success, statistics and much more.
Famous Benjamin Disraeli Quotes
1. “What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens”
2. “And then they say one is misanthropical. Hang it! who can help being misanthropical when he finds everybody getting on in life except himself?”
3. “Yes,” said Lady St Julians. “I think those men who breakfast out or who give breakfasts are generally dangerous characters; at least, I would not trust them.”
4. “In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of cooperation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbors. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour as ourself; modern society acknowledges no neighbour.”
5. “In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of cooperation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbours. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour as ourself; modern society acknowledges no neighbour.”
6. “The English in politics are as the old Hebrews in religion, ‘a favored and peculiar people.”
7. “But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.”
8. “When I want to read a book, I write one.”
9. “Power has only one duty–to secure the social welfare of the people.”
10. “Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”
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11. “There are exceptions to all rules, but it seldom answers to follow the advice of an opponent.”
12. “I cannot pay attention unless I am attracted,” said Egremont.”
13. “I have sometimes half believed, although the suspicion is mortifying, that there is only one step between his state who deeply indulges in imaginative meditation, and insanity.”
14. “The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.”
15. “I cannot pay attention unless I am attracted.”
16. “Art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern: the distinctive faculty. In the minds of men the useful has succeeded to the beautiful.”
17. “The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.”
18. “Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.”
19. “A consistent man believes in destiny; a capricious man in chance.”
20. “Other men condemned to exile and captivity, if they survive, despair; the man of letters may reckon those days as the sweetest of his life”
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21. “Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.”
22. “Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.”
23. “The messenger from the Republics of the West now prostrated himself before the Statue. He informed it that two parties had, unfortunately, broken out in these countries, and threatened their speedy dissolution; that one party maintained that all human government originated in the wants of man; while the other party asserted that it originated in the desires of man. That these factions had become so violent and so universal that public business was altogether stopped,”
24. “An English revolution is at least a solemn sacrifice: a French revolution is an indecent massacre.”
25. “If you wish to win a man”s heart, allow him to confute you.”
26. “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.”
27. “Nothing resists a human will that stakes its very existence upon the achievement of its purpose”
28. “The East is a career.”
29. “The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right.”
30. “Talk to people about themselves and they will listen for hours”
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31. “The history of Heroes is the history of Youth.”
32. “It is a holy thing to see a state saved by its youth.”
33. “When I want to read a good book I write one.”
34.“There is no act of treachery or mean-ness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour”
35. “Books are companions even if you don’t open them.”
36. “Man must ever be the slave of routine: but in old days it was a routine of great thoughts, and now it is a routine of little ones.”
37. “It has been my lot to have found myself in many distant lands. I have never been in one without finding a Scotchman, and I never found a Scotchman who was not head of the poll.”
38. “In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of cooperation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes;; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbors. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbour as ourself; modern society acknowledges no neighbour.”
39. “Never apologize, never explain.”
40. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.”
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41. “Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.”
42. “To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.”
43. “Political life must be taken as you find it.”
44. “Silence is the mother of truth”
45. “We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous.”
46. “Generally speaking, all the great events have been distorted, most of the important causes concealed, some of the principal characters never appear, and all who figure are so misunderstood and misrepresented, that the result is a complete mystification, and the perusal of the narrative about as profitable as reading the Republic of Plato or the Utopia if More.”
47. “We live in an age where to be young and to be indifferent can no longer by synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the future are represented by suffering millions; and the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity”
48. “Nothing can resist a human will that will stake its existence on a purpose”
49. “I believe that nothing in newspapers is ever true,” said Madame Phoebus. “And that is why they are so popular,” added Euphrosyne; “the tast of the age being so decidedly for fiction.”
50. “Talk to people about themselves, and they will listen for hours.”
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51. “Life Is Too Short to be Small”
52. “Change is inevitable. Change is constant.”
53. “Never explain. Never complain.”
54. “Political institutions, founded on abstract rights and principles, are mere nullities.”
55. “Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.”
56. “In all things we trace the irresistible influence of the individual.”
57. “Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.”
58. “Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power”
59. “What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.”
60. “Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.”
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61. “It destroys one’s nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being.”
62. “It is well-known what a middleman is; he is a man who bamboozles one party and plunders the other.”
63. “Grief is the agony of an instant: the indulgence of grief is the blunder of life. ”
64.. “You asked me where I generally lived. In my workshop [i.e. in his study] in the mornings and always in the library in the evening. Books are companions even if you don’t open them.”
65. “Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation”
66. “In politics, nothing is contemptible.”
67. “If Gladstone fell in the Thames, that would be a misfortune. But if someone fished him out again, that would be a calamity. ”
68. “Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws . . . . THE RICH AND THE POOR.”
69. “The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”
70. “Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.”
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71. “An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children.”
72. “Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.”
73. “Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions; never irresistible but when he appeals to the imagination.”
74. “He who gains time gains everything.”
75. “Every woman should marry … and no man.”
76. “Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.”
77. “I feel a very unusual sensation – if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.”
78. “Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.”
79. “Man is created for a purpose; the object of his existence is to perfect himself. Man is imperfect by nature, because if nature had made him perfect he would have had no wants; and it is only by supplying his wants that utility can be developed. The development of utility is therefore the object of our being, and the attainment of this great end the cause of our existence.”
80. “There is no index of character as sure as the voice.”
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81. “The poor are very well off, at least the agricultural poor, very well off indeed. Their incomes are certain, that is a great point, and they have no cares, no anxieties; they always have a resource, they always have the House. People without cares do not require as much food as those whose life entails anxieties. See how long they live!”
82. “When I want to read a good book, I write one.”
83. “Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.”
84.. “Departures should be sudden.”
85. “England is governed not by logic but by parliament.”
86. “There is no wisdom like frankness.”
87. “Never complain, never explain.”
88. “Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.”
89. “Where knowledge ends, religion begins.”
90. “Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”
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91. “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”
92. “Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours”
93. “Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.”
94. “Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure, and generally create ourselves.”
95. “Life is too short to be little.”
96. “The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.”
97. “As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.”
98. “I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.”
99. “Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.”
100. “Ignorance never settles a question.”