“You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.”

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition.

Damn your principles! Stick to your party.

The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Nine-tenths of the existing books are nonsense and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.

Frank and explicit – that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others.

Little things affect little minds.

Without tact you can learn nothing.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married.

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation.

Grief is the agony of an instant; the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.

Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.

There are moments when you love babies, and you’re like, “God, they are the reason why we exist.” Then they start crying, and you’re like “God! Jesus!”

Let’s take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.

As life nears its end with me, I find myself meditating more and more upon the mystery of its nature and origin, yet without the least hope that I can find out the ways of the Eternal in this or in any other world.

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter.

The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill in finding their way back when removed to a distance.

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think.

I find that something one gets from Emerson in early life does not leave him when he grows old.