16 January—I can’t let Lord Beaconsfield rest in peace (or molder in his grave in the Hughenden Parish Church yard) without treating you to a few of his percipient, pithy observations about this and that—mostly politics, mostly one-liners. For my own convenience, I’ll forgo references to time, place, and occasion. With difficulty, I’ll also forgo comment. In all events, it’s well worth reading to the end.

“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.”

“I look upon the Whigs [i.e., Democrats] as an anti-national party. Believing that the policy of the party was such as must destroy the honour of the kingdom abroad and the happiness of the people at home, I considered it my duty to oppose the Whigs, to ensure their discomfiture, and, if possible, their destruction.”

“There are three types of lies—lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

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

“The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.”

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

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

“How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.”

“To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge”

“The secret to success is constancy of purpose.”

“He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.”

“Little things affect little minds.”

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

“One of the hardest things in this world is to admit you are wrong. And nothing is more helpful in resolving a situation than its frank admission.”

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

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

“Romance has been elegantly defined as the offspring of fiction and love.”

“Where knowledge ends, religion begins.”

“Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”

“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”

“Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.”

“As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.”

“Ignorance never settles a question.”

“What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.”

“Justice is truth in action.”

“Success is the child of audacity.”

“Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.”

“If Gladstone [Liberal prime minister] fell in the Thames, that would be a misfortune. But if someone fished him out again, that would be a calamity.”

“The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.”

“It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.”

“Every woman should marry. And no man.”

“Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.”

“When I want to read a good book, I write one.”

“England is governed not by logic but by parliament.”

“There is no wisdom like frankness.”

“There is no act of treachery or mean-ness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour.”

“In politics, nothing is contemptible.”

“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.”

“Silence is the mother of truth.”

“Political institutions, founded on abstract rights and principles, are mere nullities.”

“Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.”

“I cannot pay attention unless I am attracted.”

“The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.”

“Sir, I shall not defeat you. I shall transcend you.”

When a member of Parliament chided Disraeli, “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease,” Dizzy retorted, “That depends, Sir, whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

When an MP made an antisemitic reference to Disraeli, a baptized Anglican, the Diz parried, “Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.”

Now, aren’t you glad you read all the way to the end?