Walter Bagehot
Walter Bagehot
Walter Bagehotwas a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, and literature...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth3 February 1826
care inevitable routine
It is an inevitable defect, that bureaucrats will care more for routine than for results.
great king monarchy rights sovereign three
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. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others.
beats conquest english-author hard impact meanness military virtues
Conquest is the missionary of valour, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.
fear long judgement
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.
actions beginning bond civilization condition impose intense legality marked men settled tendency ties
The beginning of civilization is marked by an intense legality; that legality is the very condition of its existence, the bond which ties it together; but that legality - that tendency to impose a settled customary yoke upon all men and all actions -
real essence energy
The real essence of work is concentrated energy.
english-author few good people written
The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything.
cannot english-author great life people
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
heart intellect intelligence-and-intellectuals martyr soul truth
He believes, with all his heart and soul and strength, that there is such a thing as truth; he has the soul of a martyr with the intellect of an advocate.
kind obstruction greater
Throughout the greater part of his life George III was a kind of 'consecrated obstruction'.
military war race
War both needs and generates certain virtues; not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary virtues, as valor, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the race of nations.
funny scandal youth
In my youth I hoped to do great things; now I shall be satisfied to get through without scandal.
wise mean promise
Credit means that a certain confidence is given, and a certain trust reposed. Is that trust justified? And is that confidence wise? These are the cardinal questions. To put it more simply credit is a set of promises to pay; will those promises be kept?
wise lying philosophy
Great and terrible systems of divinity and philosophy lie round about us, which, if true, might drive a wise man mad.