WALTER BAGEHOT QUOTES VI

English economist and political analyst (1826-1877)

Progress is only possible in those happy cases where the force of legality has gone far enough to bind the nation together, but not far enough to kill out all varieties and destroy nature's perpetual tendency to change.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: change


Sydney Smith is often compared to Swift; but this only shows with how little thought our common criticism is written. The two men have really nothing in common, except that they were both high in the Church, and both wrote amusing letters about Ireland.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: church


The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: progress


The mere presentation of an idea, unless we are careful about it, or unless there is within some unusual resistance, makes us believe it; and this is why the belief of others adds to our belief so quickly, for no ideas seem so very clear as those inculcated on us from every side.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: belief


The use of the Queen, in a dignified capacity, is incalculable. Without her in England, the present English Government would fail and pass away. Most people when they read that the Queen walked on the slopes at Windsor—that the Prince of Wales went to the Derby—have imagined that too much thought and prominence were given to little things. But they have been in error; and it is nice to trace how the actions of a retired widow and an unemployed youth become of such importance.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: government


There is, as yet, no Act of Parliament compelling a bona fide traveler to read. If you wish him to read, you must make reading pleasant. You must give him short views, and clear sentences.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: reading


What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing ... a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: custom


A single run of luck has made the fortune of many a charm and many idols.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: charm


A sudden change of Ministers may easily cause a mischievous change of policy.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: change


In many matters of business, perhaps in most, a continuity of mediocrity is better than a hotch-potch of excellences.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: business


In the most intellectual city of the ancient world, in its most intellectual age, Socrates, its most intellectual inhabitant, discouraged the study of physics because they engendered uncertainty, and did not augment human happiness. The kind of knowledge which is most connected with human progress now was that least connected with it then.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: age


Man, being the strongest of all animals, differs from the rest; he was obliged to be his own domesticator; he had to tame himself.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: animals


On few subjects has more nonsense been written than on the learning of Shakespeare.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: learning


Probably in most cases the greatest wisdom of a constitutional king would show itself in well-considered inaction.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: 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

Physics and Politics

Tags: art


The faculties which fit a man to be a great ruler are not those of society; some great rulers have been unintelligible like Cromwell, or brusque like Napoleon, or coarse and barbarous like Sir Robert Walpole. The light nothings of the drawing-room and the grave things of office are as different from one another as two human occupations can be. There is no naturalness in uniting the two; the end of it always is, that you put a man at the head of society who very likely is remarkable for social defects, and is not eminent for social merits.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: light


The heart and passions of men are moved by things more within their attainment; the essential nature is stirred by the essential life; by the real actual existence of love, and hope, and character, and by the real literature which takes in its spirit, and which is in some sort its undefecated essence.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Biographical Studies


The most valuable result of many years is a nicely balanced mind instinctively heedful of various errors.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: mind


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

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: civilization


To make a single nation illustrate a principle, you must exaggerate much and you must omit much.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics