Walter Bagehot Quotes

"He believes, with all his heart and soul and strength, that there is such a thing as truth; he has the soul of a martyr with the intellect of an advocate."

"Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success."

"What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind."

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

"Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison."

"A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people."

"The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it."

"An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind."

"Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them."

"One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea."

"The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds."

"An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle."

"The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen."

"Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits."

"Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell."

"An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own."

"The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other."

"A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself."

"A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life."

"The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything."