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Walter Bagehot
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.The English Constitution (1867) ‘The Cabinet’
- Nations touch at their summits.The English Constitution (1867) ‘The House of Lords’
- Above all things our royalty is to be reverenced, and if you begin to poke about it you cannot reverence it…Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic.The English Constitution (1867) ‘The Monarchy (continued)’
- 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.The English Constitution (1867) ‘The Monarchy (continued)’
- It is an inevitable defect, that bureaucrats will care more for routine than for results.The English Constitution (1867) ‘On Changes of Ministry’
- The worst families are those in which the members never really speak their minds to one another; they maintain an atmosphere of unreality, and everyone always lives in an atmosphere of suppressed ill-feeling.The English Constitution (ed. 2, 1872) introduction
- Writers, like teeth, are divided into incisors and grinders.Estimates of some Englishmen and Scotchmen (1858) ‘The First Edinburgh Reviewers’
- One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.Physics and Politics (1872) ‘The Age of Discussion’
- The truth is that the propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature.Physics and Politics (1872) ‘Nation-Making’
- 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.Physics and Politics (1872)
- The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.in Prospective Review 1853 ‘Shakespeare’
- There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.in The Economist 5 September 1863
- He describes London like a special correspondent for posterity.in National Review 7 October 1858 ‘Charles Dickens’
- A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.on being urged to marry by his motherin Norman St John Stevas Works of Walter Bagehot (1986) vol. 15 ‘Walter Bagehot's Conversation’
