Benjamin Disraeli

We are not creatures of circumstance; we are creators of circumstance.

The test of political institutions is the condition of the country whose future they regulate.

As a general rule, nobody has money who ought to have it.

A sophisticated rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity.

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

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

News is that which comes from the North, East, West and South, and if it comes from only one point on the compass, then it is a class; publication and not news.

How fair is a garden amid the toils and passions of existence.

Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth.

Bore: one who has the power of speech but not the capacity for conversation.

Man is made to create, from the poet to the potter.

Apologies only account for that which they do not alter.

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.

There is magic in the memory of schoolboy friendships; it softens the heart, and even affects the nervous system of those who have no heart.

Having the courage to live within one's means is respectability.

All my successes have been built on my failures.

Nature is more powerful than education; time will develop everything.

The disappointment of manhood succeeds the delusion of youth.

Small things affects small minds.

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.

The European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries he has established a society which has mistaken comfort for civilisation.