Walter Bagehot quotes - page 3

Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best. (Walter Bagehot)
The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people who can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum. View quote
Walter Bagehot
You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor... Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits. View quote
Walter Bagehot
But the Queen has no such veto; She must sign her own death-warrant if the two Houses unanimously send it up to her. View quote
Walter Bagehot
The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights-the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. View quote
Walter Bagehot
I started out by believing God for a newer car than the one I was driving. I started out believing God for a nicer apartment than I had. Then I moved up. View quote
Walter Bagehot
Under a cabinet constitution at a sudden emergency this people can choose a ruler for the occasion. It is quite possible and even likely that he would not be ruler before the occasion. The great qualities, the imperious will, the rapid energy, the eager nature fit for a great crisis are not required-are impediments-in common times. A Lord Liverpool is better in everyday politics than a Chatham-a Louis Philippe far better than a Napoleon. By the structure of the world we want, at the sudden occurrence of a grave tempest, to change the helmsman-to replace the pilot of the calm by the pilot of the storm. View quote
Walter Bagehot
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. View quote
Walter Bagehot
An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft. View quote
Walter Bagehot
The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it. View quote
Walter Bagehot
An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind. (Walter Bagehot)
Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world. View quote
Walter Bagehot
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. View quote
Walter Bagehot
The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it. View quote
Walter Bagehot
A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization; like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment. View quote
Walter Bagehot
Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders. View quote
Walter Bagehot
It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations. View quote
Walter Bagehot
Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them. View quote
Walter Bagehot
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. View quote
Walter Bagehot
So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable. View quote
Walter Bagehot
All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape. (Walter Bagehot)
In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best. View quote
Walter Bagehot
So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong. View quote
Walter Bagehot
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. View quote
Walter Bagehot
No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation. View quote
Walter Bagehot