Among British Prime Ministers, Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), who was also a novelist (Sybil, or The Two Nations; Vivian Grey; Tancred, or The New Crusade; etc.), ranks second only to Winston Churchill in the quality and variety of his wit. When ordered in the House [of Commons] to withdraw his declaration that
half of the cabinet were asses, Disraeli replied, `Mr. Speaker, I withdraw. Half the
cabinet are not asses.'" Assiduous in his attendance to the business of the House, he commented, "No man is regular in his attendance at the House of Commons until he is married." Disraeli himself married a wealthy widow; of the match, he said, "I may commit many follies in my life, but I never intend to marry for love." There's an edge to his wit that hints at the hardships the son of a Jewish merchant in nineteenth-century Britain must have endured on his way to the top of what he called "the greasy pole." But he made it.
