Quotes by Walter Bagehot

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

Life is a school of probability.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

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

Success

An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

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

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

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.

— Walter Bagehot

Happiness

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and their conscience that it is wrong.

— Walter Bagehot

Education

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.

— Walter Bagehot

Wisdom

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

Wisdom

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.

— Walter Bagehot

Friendship

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.

— Walter Bagehot

Life

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

— Walter Bagehot

Life

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

Wisdom