He had been regarded as a pestilent thorn in the sides of all ministers.

But now he was a member of the Cabinet, and those whom he had terrified in the old days began to find that he was not so much unlike other men.

There are but few horses which you cannot put into harness, and those of the highest spirit will generally do your work the best.
Phineas, who had his eyes about him, thought that he could perceive that Mr.Palliser did not shoot a deer with Mr.Ratler, and that Mr.
Gresham played no chess with Mr.Bonteen.Bonteen, indeed, was a noisy pushing man whom nobody seemed to like, and Phineas wondered why he should be at Loughlinter, and why he should be in office.

His friend Laurence Fitzgibbon had indeed once endeavoured to explain this.

"A man who can vote hard, as I call it; and who will speak a few words now and then as they're wanted, without any ambition that way, may always have his price.