16 Benjamin Disraeli Quotes on Strategy

Benjamin Disraeli quotes on strategy

1. To govern men, you must either excel them in their accomplishments, or despise them.

7. The noble lord is the Prince Rupert of parliamentary discussion: his charge is resistless, but when he returns from the pursuit he always finds his camp in the possession of the enemy.

9. The right honorable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

11. Protection is not a principle, but an expedient.

22. Coalitions though successful have always found this, that their triumph has been brief.

75. Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

92. In politics, nothing is contemptible.

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

173. The more you are talked about the less powerful you are.

181. Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

185. 'Diplomacy is the art of telling someone to go to hell and making them anticipate the trip.'

200. I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

203. If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune; and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity.

224. The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.

242. You have heard me accused me of being a flatterer. It is true. I am a flatterer. I have found it useful. Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.

259. ...a man who is never beaten. Every reverse, every defeat is to him only an admonition to wait and catch his opportunity of retrieving his position.