Walter Bagehot Quotes - Page 3

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• Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.

  Walter Bagehot

  Writing, Teeth, Grinder

  'Estimates of some Englishmen and Scotchmen' (1858) 'The First Edinburgh Reviewers'

  16 Copy quote

• Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.

  Walter Bagehot

  Bankers, Gone, Banking

  "Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market".

  6 Copy quote

• Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not at all suited to civilized circumstances.

  Walter Bagehot

  Society, Age, Human Nature

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.185

  11 Copy quote

• Credit means that a certain confidence is given, and a certain trust reposed. Is that trust justified? And is that confidence wise? These are the cardinal questions. To put it more simply credit is a set of promises to pay; will those promises be kept?

  Walter Bagehot

  Wise, Mean, Promise

  Walter Bagehot (2007). “Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market”, p.22, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• We see but one aspect of our neighbor, as we see but one side of the moon; in either case there is also a dark half, which is unknown to us. We all come down to dinner, but each has a room to himself.

  Walter Bagehot

  Dark, Moon, Half

  Walter Bagehot (1901). “Shakespeare the Man: An Essay”, New York : University Society

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Walter Bagehot

  Knowing, People, Mind

  Walter Bagehot (1858). “Estimates of Some Englishmen and Scotchmen”, p.337

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• The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.

  Walter Bagehot

  Book, Writing, People

  Walter Bagehot (1911). “Literary Studies: The first Edinburgh reviewers (1855) Hartley Coleridge (1852) Percy Bysshe Shelley (1856) Shakespeare the man (1853) John Milton (1859) Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1862) William Cowper (1855) Appendices; Letters on the French coup d̓etat”

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• So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.

  Walter Bagehot

  Business, War, Tyrants

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.65

  8 Copy quote

• The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards

  Walter Bagehot

  Civilization, Culture, Firsts

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.74

  14 Copy quote

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

  Walter Bagehot

  Inspirational, Progress, Poison

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.74

  66 Copy quote

• Nine tenths of modern science is in this respect the same: it is the produce of men whom their contemporaries thought dreamers - who were laughed at for caring for what did not concern them - who, as the proverb went, 'walked into a well from looking at the stars' - who were believed to be useless, if anyone could be such.

  Walter Bagehot

  Life, Stars, Caring

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.187

  4 Copy quote

• There seems to be an unalterable contradiction between the human mind and its employments. How can a soul be a merchant? What relation to an immortal being have the price of linseed, the brokerage on hemp? Can an undying creature debit petty expenses and charge for carriage paid? The soul ties its shoes; the mind washes its hands in a basin. All is incongruous.

  Walter Bagehot

  Shoes, Ties, Hands

  Walter Bagehot, Norman St. John-Stevas (1959). “Walter Bagehot: A Study of His Life and Thought, Together with a Selection from His Political Writings”, London : Eyre & Spottiswoode

  6 Copy quote

• Business is really more agreeable than pleasure; it interests the whole mind, the aggregate nature of man more continuously, and more deeply. But it does not look as if it did.

  Walter Bagehot

  Business, Men, Mind

  Walter Bagehot (1867). “The English Constitution”, p.149

  11 Copy quote

• The characteristic merit of the English constitutions is, that its dignified parts are very complicated and somewhat imposing, very old and rather venerable, while its efficient part, at least when in great and critical action, is decidedly simple and modern.

  Walter Bagehot

  Simple, Merit, Action

  Walter Bagehot (1930). “The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays”, p.38, Lulu.com

  12 Copy quote

• When great questions end, little parties begin.

  Walter Bagehot

  Party, Politics, Littles

  Walter Bagehot (1930). “The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays”, p.161, Lulu.com

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Walter Bagehot

  Art, Light, History

  Walter Bagehot (2010). “Physics and Politics: Or Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of Natural Selection and Inheritance to Political Society”, p.62, Cambridge University Press

  7 Copy quote

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

  Walter Bagehot

  Agents, Ambassadors, Diplomacy

  Walter Bagehot (1877). “The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays”, p.188

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• The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing personages of the a splendid procession; it is by them that the mob are influenced; it is they who the inspectors cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second hand carriages; no one cares for them or asks about them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.

  Walter Bagehot

  Cheer, Real, Hands

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Walter Bagehot

  Sacrifice, Giving, Political

  Walter Bagehot (1974). “The collected works of Walter Bagehot”

  18 Copy quote

• But of all nations in the world the English are perhaps the least a nation of pure philosophers.

  Walter Bagehot

  World, Philosopher, Pure

  Walter Bagehot (1930). “The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays”, p.57, Lulu.com

  4 Copy quote

• One cannot make men good by Act of Parliament.

  Walter Bagehot

  Men, Parliament

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• Life is not a set campaign, but an irregular work, and the main forces in it are not overt resolutions, but latent and half-involuntary promptings.

  Walter Bagehot

  Life, Campaigns, Half

  Walter Bagehot (1873). “Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of "natural Selection" and "inheritance" to Political Society”, p.79

  5 Copy quote

• A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.

  Walter Bagehot

  House, Looks, Fierce

  'The English Constitution' (1867) 'The House of Lords'

  78 Copy quote

• The caucus is a sort of representative meeting which sits voting and voting till they have cut out all the known men against whom much is to be said, and agreed on some unknown man against whom there is nothing known, and therefore nothing to be alleged.

  Walter Bagehot

  Cutting, Men, Voting

  Walter Bagehot (1930). “The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays”, p.109, Lulu.com

  54 Copy quote

• Not only does a bureaucracy tend to under-government in point of quality; it tends to over-government in point of quantity.

  Walter Bagehot

  Government, Quality, Doe

  Walter Bagehot (1872). “The English Constitution ... Reprinted from the"Fortnightly Review."”, p.194

  4 Copy quote

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