Walter Bagehot Quotes

131 Sourced Quotes

History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world have a chance for it.

Walter Bagehot
In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is no match for genius.

Walter Bagehot
In happy states, the Conservative party must rule upon the whole a much longer time than their adversaries. In well-framed politics, innovation—great innovation that is—can only be occasional. If you are always altering your house, it is a sign either that you have a bad house, or that you have an excessively restless disposition—there is something wrong somewhere.

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.

Walter Bagehot
In such constitutions [as England's] there are two parts…first, those which excite and preserve the reverence of the population—the dignified parts…and next, the efficient parts—those by which it, in fact, works and rules.

Walter Bagehot
What we opprobriously call stupidity, though not an enlivening quality in common society, is nature's favorite resource for preserving steadiness of conduct and consistency of opinion.

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.

Walter Bagehot
The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economized by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null.

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
"Maternity," it has been said, "is a matter of fact, paternity is a matter of opinion."

Walter Bagehot
The cardinal maxim is, that any aid to a present bad Bank is the surest mode of preventing the establishment of a future good Bank.

Walter Bagehot
There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Walter Bagehot
Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.

Walter Bagehot
There are arguments for not having a Court, and there are arguments for having a splendid Court; but there are no arguments for having a mean Court.

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.

Walter Bagehot
The only fit material for a constitutional king is a prince who begins early to reign—who in his youth is superior to pleasure—who in his youth is willing to labour—who has by nature a genius for discretion. Such kings are among God's greatest gifts, but they are also among His rarest.

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.

Walter Bagehot
No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist.

Walter Bagehot
A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.

Walter Bagehot
Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not at all suited to civilized circumstances.

Walter Bagehot
The truth is that the propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature.

Walter Bagehot
Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.

Walter Bagehot
The whole life of English politics is the action and reaction between the ministry and the parliament.

Walter Bagehot
Taken as a whole, the universe is absurd. There seems an unalterable contradiction between the human mind and its employments.

Walter Bagehot
The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.

Walter Bagehot