Walter Bagehot quotes - page 2

Life is a school of probability. (Walter Bagehot)
A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.
Walter Bagehot
Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.
Walter Bagehot
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
A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
Walter Bagehot
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.
Walter Bagehot
Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
Walter Bagehot
A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.
Walter Bagehot
A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
Walter Bagehot
To a great experience one thing is essential - an experiencing nature.
Walter Bagehot
A cabinet is a combining committee,-a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the state to the executive part of the state. In its origin it belongs to the one, in its functions it belongs to the other. (Walter Bagehot)
The essence of work is concentrated energy.
Walter Bagehot
The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.
Walter Bagehot
... Satan is made interesting. This has been the charge of a thousand orthodox and even heterodox writers against Milton.
Walter Bagehot
... For ancient heroes the exhaustive method is possible: all that can be known of them is contained in a few short passages of Greek and Latin, and it is quite possible to say whatever can be said about every one of these; the result would not be unreasonably bulky, though it might be dull. But in the case of men who have lived in the thick of the crowded modern world, no such course is admissible; overmuch may be said, and we must choose what we will say. Biographers, however, are rarely bold enough to adopt the selective method consistently. They have, we suspect, the fear of the critics before their eyes.
Walter Bagehot
... The fame of Gibbon is highest among writers; those especially who have studied for years particular periods included in his theme (and how many those are; for in the East and West he has set his mark on all that is great for ten centuries!) acutely feel and admiringly observe how difficult it would be to say so much, and leave so little untouched; to compress so many telling points; to present in so few words so apt and embracing a narrative of the whole.
Walter Bagehot
... Nothing is so simple as the subject matter of his works. The two greatest of his creations, the character of Satan and the character of Eve, are two of the simplest-the latter probably the very simplest-in the whole field of literature. On this side, Milton's art is classical. On the other hand, in no writer is the imagery more profuse, the illustrations more various, the dress altogether more splendid; and in this respect the style of his art seems romantic and modern. In real truth, however, it is only ancient art in a modern disguise: the dress is a mere dress, and can be stripped off when we will.-we all of us do perhaps in memory strip it off for ourselves.
Walter Bagehot
In excited states of the public mind they have scarcely a discretion at all; the tendency of the public perturbation determines what shall and what shall not be dealt with. But, upon the other hand, in quiet times statesmen have great power; when there is no fire lighted, they can settle what fire shall be lit. And as the new suffrage is happily to be tried in a quiet time, the responsibility of our statesmen is great because their power is great too.
Walter Bagehot
Whatever may be the defects of Gibbon's history, none can deny him a proud precision and a style in marching order.
Walter Bagehot
... Practical people have little idea of the practical ability required to write a large book, and especially a large history. Long before you get to the pen, there is an immensity of pure business: heaps of material are strewn every where; but they lie in disorder, unread, uncatalogued, unknown. It seems a dreary waste of life to be analysing, indexing, extracting works and passages, in which one per cent of the contents are interesting, and not half of that per centage will ultimately appear in the flowing narrative.
Walter Bagehot
[Of Guizot] A Puritan born in France by mistake. (Walter Bagehot)
Cabinet governments educate the nation; the presidential does not educate it, and may corrupt it.
Walter Bagehot
The greatest enjoyment possible to man was that which this philosophy promises its votaries-the pleasure of being always right, and always reasoning-without ever being bound to look at anything.
Walter Bagehot
Maternity," it has been said, "is a matter of fact, paternity is a matter of opinion.
Walter Bagehot
The name ‘London Banker' had especially a charmed value. He was supposed to represent, and often did represent, a certain union of pecuniary sagacity and educated refinement which was scarcely to be found in any other part of society.
Walter Bagehot