“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
“A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
— Walter Bagehot
“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.”
— Walter Bagehot
“Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.”
— Walter Bagehot
“Poverty is an anomaly to rich people: it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.”
— Walter Bagehot
“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.”
— Walter Bagehot
“To a great experience one thing is essential – an experiencing nature.”
— 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.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The real essence of work is concentrated energy.”
— Walter Bagehot
“Business is really more agreeable than pleasure it interests the whole mind . . . more deeply. But it does not look as if it did.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The greatest please in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do”
— Walter Bagehot
“Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders.”
— Walter Bagehot
“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. We all come down to dinner, but each has a room to himself.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.”
— Walter Bagehot
“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
— Walter Bagehot
“Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do.”
— Walter Bagehot
“So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism – despotism during the campaign – is indispensable.”
– 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
“One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.”
– Walter Bagehot
“The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
– 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
“A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
– Walter Bagehot
“Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.”
– 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
“No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist.”
– Walter Bagehot