Isaac D'Israeli

“The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.”

“Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the true parent of genius.”

“Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, when it descends to earth, is only a stone.”

“The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.”

“The self-educated are marked by stubborn peculiarities.”

“A great work is a thing of slow growth.”

“It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.”

“The truths of history are often not absolute but relative.”

“There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.”

“The passions are the only orators that always persuade.”

“Books are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity.”

“Whatever is felicitously expressed risks being worse expressed: it is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.”

“The study of biography is a powerful incentive to virtue.”

“The present is a fleeting moment, the past is no more; and our prospect of futurity is dark and doubtful.”

“Reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics.”