Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honourable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon." in the context of "Reply to a taunt by Daniel O'Connell http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pms/dizzy.html. This is probably apocryphal, despite its wide circulation. See the discussion in the comments by scholars who have searched carefully for a source, in "No, Benjamin Disraeli did not write that," by Sue Brewton,Sue Brewton's Blog On Quotes and Misquotes(April 30, 2016) https://suebrewton.com/2016/04/30/no-benjamin-disraeli-did-not-write-that/. Early appearance in Hunterberg, Max (1909), The Russian Mephistopheles, pages: 105-106, place: Glasgow, publisher: John J. Rae" to mean that wisdom is timeless.