WIST Quotations

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:07:52 +0000

Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 12:10:05 +0000

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

An frequently used saying of his. Quoted in Wilfrid Meynell, Benjamin Disraeli: An Unconventional Biography (1903). Also attributed to Samuel Johnson.

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 14:35:28 +0000

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)
(Source)

Attributed by Mark Twain in "Chapters from My Autobiography" (Apr 1904), North American Review (7 Sep 1906): "Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'"

The phrase has not been found in any of Disraeli's works, and he is considered unlikely to be the originator. Variants of the phrase date back a century or more from Twain's reference. More discussion about this quotation here:

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 13:58:07 +0000

Never complain and never explain.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)
(Source)

Most often cited to John Morley, Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1, Book 2, ch. 2, sec. 1 (1903). This was Disraeli's distillation of advice that Lord High Chancellor John Copley, Lord Lyndhurst, gave at a January 1835 dinner attended both a young Gladstone and Disraeli:

Never defend yourself before a popular assemblage, except with and by retorting the attack; the hearers, in the pleasure which the assault gives them, will forget the previous charge.

The phrase is also attributed to Benjamin Jowett, Henry Ford II, and Charles Stewart Parnell.

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 01:21:39 +0000

Characters never change. Opinions alter — characters are only developed.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

Quoted in Joseph Waldo Denny, Wearing The Blue in The Twenty-Fifth Mass. Volunteer Infantry (1879).

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Coningsby: Or, The New Generation, Book 3, ch. 1 (1844)

Dave — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:13:50 +0000

Youth is a blunder; Manhood a struggle; Old Age a regret.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Coningsby: Or, The New Generation, Book 3, ch. 1 (1844)
(Source)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Coningsby, bk. 3, ch. 1 (1844)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Coningsby, bk. 3, ch. 1 (1844)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Contarini Fleming, ch. 13 (1832)

Dave — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 02:25:17 +0000

Never apologize for showing feeling, my friend. Remember that when you do so, you apologize for truth.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Contarini Fleming, ch. 13 (1832)
(Source)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2, Part 4 (1835)

Dave — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:20:48 +0000

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2, Part 4 (1835)

Full text.

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Endymion, ch. 61 (1880)

Dave — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 04:29:44 +0000

Tact teaches you when to be silent.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Endymion, ch. 61 (1880)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Henrietta Temple, bk. 2, ch. 4 (1837)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Henrietta Temple, bk. 2, ch. 4 (1837)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Lothair, ch. 41 (Lothair) (1870)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Lothair, ch. 41 (Lothair) (1870)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Sybil, “The Gentleman in Downing Street,” bk 6, ch 1 (1845)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Frank and explicit: That is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your mind and confuse the minds of others.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Sybil, “The Gentleman in Downing Street,” bk 6, ch 1 (1845)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- The Infernal Marriage (1834)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
The Infernal Marriage (1834)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Vivian Grey Part 6, ch. 7 (1826)

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:05:06 +0000

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Vivian Grey Part 6, ch. 7 (1826)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Vivian Grey, Book 6, ch. 7 (1826)

Dave — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 20:54:28 +0000

Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of Grief the blunder of a life.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Vivian Grey, Book 6, ch. 7 (1826)
(Source)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Campaign speech, High Wycombe, England (27 Nov. 1832)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Campaign speech, High Wycombe, England (27 Nov. 1832)

http://www.bartleby.com/73/314.html

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Speech (1874-06-15), House of Commons, Minister of Education, Motion for a Select Committee

Dave — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 17:27:37 +0000

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Speech (1874-06-15), House of Commons, Minister of Education, Motion for a Select Committee
(Source)

Recorded in Parliamentary Debates (Comnmons), series 3, vol. 219, col. 1618, for 1874-06-15.

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Speech (25 Nov. 1864)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Man is a being born to believe. And if no church comes forward with its title-deeds of truth to guide him, he will find altars and idols in his own heart and his own imagination.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Speech (25 Nov. 1864)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Speech, Banquet to Lord Rector, University of Glasgow (19 Nov 1870)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:43:55 +0000

I think the author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Speech, Banquet to Lord Rector, University of Glasgow (19 Nov 1870)
(Source)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Speech, House of Commons (14 Mar 1850)

Dave — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 00:50:06 +0000

To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Speech, House of Commons (14 Mar 1850)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- Speech, House of Commons (24 Jan 1860)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Speech, House of Commons (24 Jan 1860)