Walter Bagehot Quotes
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We must not let daylight in upon the magic.
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Life is a school of probability.
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... Satan is made interesting. This has been the charge of a thousand orthodox and even heterodox writers against Milton.
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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.
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Behind every man's external life, which he leads in company, there is another which he leads alone, and which he carries with him apart. 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.
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You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.
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What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.
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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.
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The less money lying idle the greater is the dividend.
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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.
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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
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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.
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Woman absent is woman dead.
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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.
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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.
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A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
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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.
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The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
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An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.
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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.
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The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
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Cabinet governments educate the nation; the presidential does not educate it, and may corrupt it.
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Nations touch at their summits.
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Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.