Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery

“A speech is like a love affair. Any fool can start it, but to end it requires considerable skill.”

“The British Empire is the greatest secular agency for good that the world has ever known.”

“He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; he who ceases to grow becomes smaller.”

“A man who is always announcing that he is going to do a thing is not the man to do it.”

“I have always said that a man of my temperament ought not to be in politics.”

“Rulers of men have this in common with the gods: they are often mocked, but they are never abandoned.”

“There are two supreme pleasures in life. The first is ideal, the second real. The ideal is when a man receives the seals of office from his Sovereign. The real pleasure comes when he hands them back.”

“For the present, at any rate, I must plough my own furrow alone.”

“Imperialism is a larger patriotism.”

“The day of small nations has long passed away. The day of Empires has come.”

“Sleep is the most capricious of all the deities.”

“The best tribute to a great man is to try and finish his work.”

“Efficiency and Empire are the watchwords of the future.”

“What is the new Liberalism? It is the application of old principles to new facts.”