"Once at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease". Disraeli replied, "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress.""

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More quotes from: Benjamin Disraeli

• "A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy. "
• "A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance. "
• "A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of ..."
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• "A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely ..."
• "A precedent embalms a principle. "
• "A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity. "
• "Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. "
• "An author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother ..."
• "An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother ..."
• "An insular country, subject to fogs, and with a powerful middle class, requires grave statesmen. "
• "As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has ..."
• "As for our majority... one is enough. "
• "Assassination has never changed the history of the world. "
• "Be amusing: never tell unkind stories; above all, never tell long ones. "
• "Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ..."
• "Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books ..."
• "But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is ..."
• "Change is inevitable. Change is constant. "
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• "Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent. "
• "Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it ..."
• "Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke. "
• "Damn your principles! Stick to your party. "
• "Despair is the conclusion of fools. "
• "Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius. "
• "Diligence is the mother of good fortune. "
• "Duty cannot exist without faith. "
• "Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful. "
• "Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm. "
• "Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with ..."
• "Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained ..."
• "Fear makes us feel our humanity. "
• "Finality is not the language of politics. "
• "Frank and explicit - that is the right line to take when you wish to ..."
• "Great countries are those that produce great people. "
• "Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a ..."
• "Had it not been for you, I should have remained what I was when we ..."
• "He traces the steam engine all the way back to the tea kettle. "
• "He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong. "
• "His shortcoming is his long staying. "
• "How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct. "
• "I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best. "
• "I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it ..."
• "I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with ..."
• "I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget. "
• "I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; ..."
• "I say that justice is truth in action. "
• "If a man be gloomy let him keep to himself. No one has the right ..."
• "If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune; and if anybody pulled ..."
• "If you're not very clever you should be conciliatory. "

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• "In politics nothing is contemptible. "
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• "It is much easier to be critical than to be correct. "
• "Justice is truth in action. "
• "King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the ..."
• "Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears ..."
• "Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than ..."
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• "Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are ..."
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• "Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe. "
• "Moderation has been called a virtue to limit the ambition of great men, and to ..."
• "Moderation is the center wherein all philosophies, both human and divine, meet. "
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• "Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth. "
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• "Never take anything for granted. "
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• "No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. "
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• "Nobody is forgotten when it is convenient to remember him. "
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• "Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation. "
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