The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906. VI–IX: British Aphorisms By Lord Beaconsfield (1804–1881)
From “Novels and Speeches”
HE WOMAN who is talked about is generally virtuous, and she is only abused because she devotes to one the charms which all wish to enjoy. 1 It takes three generations to make a gentleman. 2 A majority is always better than the best repartee. 3 An after-dinner anecdote ought to be as piquant as anchovy toast. 4 What is the use of belonging to an old family, unless to have the authority of an ancestor ready for any prejudice, religious or political, which your combinations may require? 5 What is crime amongst the multitude is only vice among the few. 6 Confiscation is a blunder that destroys public credit; taxation, on the contrary, improves it. Both come to the same thing. 7 The critic is a man who has failed in literature or in art. 8 One cannot ask any person to meet another in one’s own house without going through a sum of moral arithmetic. 9 When a man falls into his anecdotage, it is a sign for him to retire. 10 The gentleman was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong. 11 The world is a wheel, and it will all come round right. 12
