“The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade.”

One wants in a Prime Minister a good many things, but not very great things. He should be clever but need not be a genius; he should be conscientious but by no means strait-laced.

There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.

The secrets of the world are very marvellous, but they are not themselves half so wonderful as the way in which they become known to the world.

I hate a stupid man who can’t talk to me, and I hate a clever man who talks me down. I don’t like a man who is too lazy to make any effort to shine; but I particularly dislike the man who is always striving for effect.

Cham is the only thing to screw one up when one is down a peg.

Rights and rules, which are bonds of iron to a little man, are packthread to a giant.

People seen by the mind are exactly different to things seen by the eye. They grow smaller and smaller as you come nearer down to them, whereas things become bigger.

There is nothing perhaps so generally consoling to a man as a well-established grievance.

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May.

We cannot bring ourselves to believe it possible that a foreigner should in any respect be wiser than ourselves.

Never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that.

Wine is valued for its price, not its flavor.

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself.

There is such a difference between life and theory.

The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician’s life.

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else, will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.