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 less money lying idle the greater is the dividend.
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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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What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.
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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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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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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
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A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
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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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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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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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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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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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A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
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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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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 real essence of work is concentrated energy.
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The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
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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?
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A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.