Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848) was an English writer, scholar, and man of letters. He is best known for his literary essays, and as the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.
Born in Enfield, Middlesex, D’Israeli, descended from a Jewish merchant family from the Levant who had settled in Italy. He obtained a freethinking education in Amsterdam before returning to Britain. He had wished to become a creative writer but instead turned to literary history.
D’Israeli’s prominent publication is the six-volume Curiosities of Literature (1791–1834.) His most notable and original work is The Literary Character (1795,) in which he identified the qualities of temperament shared by creative writers. He also wrote Calamities of Authors (1813) and Quarrels of Authors (1814.)
D’Israeli was also celebrated for his associations with such literary celebrities as Lord Byron, Walter Scott, Robert Southey, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
D’Israeli withdrew from the London congregation of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in 1817 after a clash over a fine of £40 levied on him by the Sephardi elders of the Synagogue. He had his children baptized as members of the Anglican Church. Yet, he anonymously published The Genius of Judaism (1833,) which celebrated Jewish history while criticizing its religious institutions. His pro-royalist Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles I (1828–30) was noteworthy for its diligent use of documentary records for historical research.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Isaac D’Israeli
The wisdom of the wise and the experience of ages may be preserved by quotation.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Wisdom, Experience, Quotations, Future, The Future
Literature is an avenue to glory, ever open for those ingenious men who are deprived of honours or of wealth.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Literature
The act of contemplation creates the thing contemplated.
—Isaac D’Israeli
The art of meditation may be exercised at all hours, and in all places; and men of genius, in their walks, at table, and amidst assemblies, turning he eye of the mind inwards, can form an artificial solitude; retired amidst a crowd, calm amidst distraction, and wise amidst folly.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Meditation
There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Thinking, Books, Reading
Romance has been elegantly defined as the offspring of fiction and love.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Romance
There is a society in the deepest solitude.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Solitude
Solitude is the nurse of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the true parent of genius. In all ages solitude has been called for—has been flown to.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Solitude
The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Criticism
Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Enthusiasm, Genius, Passion
Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Genius, Enthusiasm
Fortune has rarely condescended to be the companion of genius.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Genius
The wise make proverbs, and fools repeat them.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Fools, Foolishness
It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.
—Isaac D’Israeli
Topics: Excellence
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