Benjamin Disraeli

A popular assembly without parties—500 isolated individuals—cannot stand five years against a Minister with an organized Government without becoming a servile Senate.

Protection is not a principle, but an expedient.

a Conservative Government is an organised hypocrisy.

The right hon. Gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal position, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

The press is not only free, it is powerful. That power is ours. It is the proudest that man can enjoy. It was not granted by monarchs, it was not gained for us by aristocracies ; but it sprang from the people, and, with an immortal …

London owes everything to its press: it owes as much to its press as it does to its being the seat of government and the law.

It is knowledge that influences and equalises the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal.

The noble lord in this case, as in so many others, first destroys his opponent, and then destroys his own position afterwards. The noble lord is the Prince Rupert of parliamentary discussion: his charge is resistless, but when he returns …

That dense population in extreme distress inhabited an island where there was an established church which was not their church; and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom lived in distant capitals. Thus they had a starving …

I believe the landed interest should be the basis of our political and social system.

The principle of the feudal system, the principle which was practically operated upon, was the noblest principle, the grandest, the most magnificent and benevolent that was ever conceived by sage, or ever practised by patriot.

Free trade is not a principle; it is an expedient.

I am not ashamed or afraid to say that I wish more sympathy had been shown on both sides towards the Chartists... I am not ashamed to say that I sympathise with millions of my fellow-subjects.

Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth.

Man is not a rational animal. He is only truly good or great when he acts from passion.

Time is the great physician.

The magic of first love is our ignorance that it can ever end.

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

Debt is the prolific mother of folly and of crime.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.

The sense of existence is the greatest happiness.