Walter Bagehot Quotes
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Life is a school of probability.
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We must not let daylight in upon the magic.
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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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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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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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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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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
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The less money lying idle the greater is the dividend.
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A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
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An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.
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Nations touch at their summits.
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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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... Satan is made interesting. This has been the charge of a thousand orthodox and even heterodox writers against Milton.
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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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The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
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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.
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A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
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Most men of business think 'Anyhow this system will probably last my time. It has gone on a long time, and is likely to go on still.'
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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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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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Of Guizot A Puritan born in France by mistake.
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A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.
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A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.