“I never knew a government yet that wanted to do anything.”

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.

This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.

Men and not measures are, no doubt, the very life of politics. But then it is not the fashion to say so in public places.

Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stony-hearted Rome.

The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.

But who ever yet was offered a secret and declined it?

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Success is a poison that should only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.

But as we do not light up our houses with our brightest lamps for all comers, so neither did she emit from her eyes their brightest sparks till special occasions for such shining had arisen.

Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.

Power is so pleasant that men quickly learn to be greedy in the enjoyment of it, and to flatter themselves that patriotism requires them to be imperious.

Of course, Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies Arabella never can.