“Experience is the child of Thought, and Thought is the child of Action. We can not learn men from books.”

— Benjamin Disraeli, Vivian Grey, 1826, Book V, Ch. 1

About Benjamin Disraeli

1804 – 1881

British statesman, twice Prime Minister, and novelist.

“I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.”

“Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.”

“Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men.”

“The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.”

“There is the love of knowing without the love of learning; the beclouding here leads to dissipation of mind.”

“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents.”

“Books are waste paper unless we spend in action the wisdom we get from thought.”

“From a Child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books.”

“The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.”