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Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot Quotes

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Famous Walter Bagehot Quotes

“In early times every sort of advantage tends to become a military advantage; such is the best way, then, to keep it alive. But the Jewish advantage never did so; beginning in religion, contrary to a thousand analogies, it remained religious.”

WayReligiousAliveMilitaryThousandAdvantageContraryBest WayAnalogies
Book:Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of
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“Whatever expenditure is sanctioned - even when it is sanctioned against the ministry's wish - the ministry must find the money. Accordingly, they have the strongest motive to oppose extra outlay. The ministry is (so to speak) the breadwinner of the political family, and has to meet the cost of philanthropy and glory; just as the head of a family has to pay for the charities of his wife and the toilette of his daughters.”

PoliticalSpeakWishPayWifeCostGloryDaughterCharityMotiveExtrasStrongestMinistryPhilanthropyExpendituresBreadwinner
Author:Walter Bagehot
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“All the inducements of early society tend to foster immediate action; all its penalties fall on the man who pauses; the traditional wisdom of those times was never weary of inculcating that "delays are dangerous," and that the sluggish man the man "who roasteth not that which he took in hunting" will not prosper on the earth, and indeed will very soon perish out of it. And in consequence an inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.”

MenActionEarthDesireFallFailingMankindDangerousHe ManQuietConsequenceTraditionalHuntingPenaltiesWearyPausesDelayInabilitySluggishImmediate Action
Book:Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of
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“A highly developed moral nature joined to an undeveloped intellectual nature, an undeveloped artistic nature, and a very limited religious nature, is of necessity repulsive. It represents a bit of human nature a good bit, of course, but a bit only in disproportionate, unnatural and revolting prominence.”

HumansCoursesBitsReligiousMoralHuman NatureIntellectualArtisticUnnaturalProminence
Book:Edward Gibbon (1856) Bishop Butler (1854) Sterne and Thackeray (1864) The Waverley novels (1858) Charles Dickens (1858) Thomas Babington Macaulay (1856) Béranger (1857) Mr. Clough's poems (1862) Henry Crabb Robinson (1869) Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browni
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“Nine tenths of modern science is in this respect the same: it is the produce of men whom their contemporaries thought dreamers - who were laughed at for caring for what did not concern them - who, as the proverb went, 'walked into a well from looking at the stars' - who were believed to be useless, if anyone could be such.”

IfsMenLifeWellsStarsModernProduceConcernCaringNineUselessLaughedDreamerModern Science
Book:Physics and Politics: Or, Thoughts on the Application of the Principles of
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“The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.”

PeopleKnowsWayWritingBookReasonEyeLife IsRoomsWrittenStyleEarsReason WhySentimentsGood BookVacuumsEmploying
Book:The collected works of Walter Bagehot
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“There seems to be an unalterable contradiction between the human mind and its employments. How can a soul be a merchant? What relation to an immortal being have the price of linseed, the brokerage on hemp? Can an undying creature debit petty expenses and charge for carriage paid? The soul ties its shoes; the mind washes its hands in a basin. All is incongruous.”

MindHumansSoulHandsSeemsCreaturesRelationPaidShoesEmploymentTiesContradictionImmortalExpensesHuman MindPettyMerchantsCarriagesHempDebit
Book:Walter Bagehot: A Study of His Life and Thought, Together with a Selection from His Political Writings
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“The characteristic merit of the English constitutions is, that its dignified parts are very complicated and somewhat imposing, very old and rather venerable, while its efficient part, at least when in great and critical action, is decidedly simple and modern.”

ActionSimpleModernConstitutionComplicatedCriticalMeritCharacteristicsEfficientParliamentImposing
Book:The English Constitution: And Other Political Essays
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“A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

PeopleLifeInspirationalInspirationMotivationalFunnyLife IsMotivationWorkPleasureStrengthPositivePositive ThinkingWords Of WisdomEnjoyedThis LifeLive LifeLife LessonFitnessBeing HappyMeaningful LifeGymnasticsBodybuildingFunny LifePeople In Your LifeHappy PeopleDoing Your BestBalanced LifeFitness MotivationalLife And HappinessWhat Is LifePleasures Of LifeGreatest PleasuresPossible And ImpossibleLife Is Not Worth LivingJust Live Your LifePositive Thinking In LifeSensual PleasureLife DeterminationMotivational BodybuildingWhat Is The Meaning Of LifeBodybuilding MotivationLife Is Way Too ShortGreat BodybuildingDreaming And DoingBasketball Is My LifePleasure And HappinessBodybuilding MotivationalMotivational ExerciseStrength And DeterminationProving People Wrong
Book:Estimates of Some Englishmen and Scotchmen
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