Benjamin Disraeli

their eminent chief alternated between a menace and a sigh.

Pure air, pure water, the inspection of unhealthy habitations, the adulteration of food, these and many kindred matters may be legitimately dealt with by the Legislature... After all, the first consideration of a minister should be the …

I beg to express my opinion that an agricultural labourer has as much right to combine for the bettering of his condition as a manufacturing labourer or worker in metals. If the causes of his combination are natural—that is to say, if they …

Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man.

And now, gentlemen, what is the condition of the great body of the people? In the first place, gentlemen, they have for centuries been in the full enjoyment of that which no other country in Europe has ever completely attained—complete …

Religious education is demanded by the nation generally and by the instincts of human nature.

Gentlemen, I am a party man. I believe that, without party, Parliamentary government is impossible. I look upon Parliamentary government as the noblest government in the world, and certainly the one most suited to England.

Gentlemen, the programme of the Conservative party is to maintain the Constitution of the country.

Without publicity there can be no public spirit, and without public spirit every nation must decay.

That is an apology, not an explanation; and apologies only account for that which they do not alter.

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

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

There can be no economy where there is no efficiency.

None are so interested in maintaining the institutions of the country as the working classes. The rich and the powerful will not find much difficulty under any circumstances in maintaining their rights, but the privileges of the people can …

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.

In a progressive country change is constant; and the great question is, not whether you should resist change which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, the customs, the laws, the …

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.

Individuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation.

Ignorance never settles a question.

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

England cannot begin again.

Assassination has never changed the history of the world.

There are rare instances when the sympathy of a nation approaches those tenderer feelings which are generally supposed to be peculiar to the individual, and to be the happy privilege of private life, and this is one.

What is the question now placed before society with the glib assurance the most astounding? That question is this—Is man an ape or an angel? My lord, I am on the side of the angels.