WALTER BAGEHOT QUOTES XIII

English economist and political analyst (1826-1877)

Those kinds of morals and that kind of religion which tend to make the firmest and most effectual character are sure to prevail, all else being the same; and creeds or systems that conduce to a soft limp mind tend to perish, except some hard extrinsic force keep them alive.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: morality


LAW—rigid, definite, concise law—is the primary want of early mankind; that which they need above anything else, that which is requisite before they can gain anything else. But it is their greatest difficulty, as well as their first requisite; the thing most out of their reach, as well as that most beneficial to them if they reach it. In later ages many races have gained much of this discipline quickly, though painfully; a loose set of scattered clans has been often and often forced to substantial settlement by a rigid conqueror; the Romans did half the work for above half Europe. But where could the first ages find Romans or a conqueror? Men conquer by the power of government, and it was exactly government which then was not. The first ascent of civilization was at a steep gradient, though when now we look down upon it, it seems almost nothing.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: government


Taken as a whole, the universe is absurd. There seems 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 fall of butter, the tare on tallow, or the brokerage on hemp? Can an undying creature debit "petty expenses," and charge for "carriage paid"?

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: mind


Some inquire from genuine love of knowledge, or from a real wish to improve what they ask about; others to see their name in the papers.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: knowledge


It is only people who have had a tooth out, that really know the dentist's waiting room.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: waiting


The soul ties its shoe; the mind washes its hands in a basin. All is incongruous.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: mind


The more we study the nature of Cabinet government, the more we shall shrink from exposing at a vital instant its delicate machinery to a blow from a casual, incompetent, and perhaps semi-insane outsider.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: government


The natural impulse of the English people is to resist authority. The introduction of effectual policemen was not liked; I know people, old people, I admit, who to this day consider them an infringement of freedom, and an imitation of the gendarmes of France. If the original policemen had been started with the present helmets, the result might have been dubious; there might have been a cry of military tyranny, and the inbred insubordination of the English people might have prevailed over the very modern love of PERFECT peace and order. The old notion that the Government is an extrinsic agency still rules our imaginations, though it is no longer true, and though in calm and intellectual moments we well know it is not. Nor is it merely our history which produces this effect; we might get over that; but the results of that history co-operate. Our double Government so acts: when we want to point the antipathy to the executive, we refer to the jealousy of the Crown, so deeply embedded in the very substance of constitutional authority; so many people are loth to admit the Queen, in spite of law and fact, to be the people's appointee and agent, that it is a good rhetorical emphasis to speak of her prerogative as something NON-popular, and therefore to be distrusted. By the very nature of our government our executive cannot be liked and trusted as the Swiss or the American is liked and trusted.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: government


Not only does the nation endure a Parliamentary government, which it would not do if Parliament were immoderate, but it likes Parliamentary government. A sense of satisfaction permeates the country because most or the country feels it has got the precise thing that suits it.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: government


And the change in the appearance of books has been accompanied — has been caused—by a similar change in readers. What a transition from the student of former ages!—from a grave man, with grave cheeks and a considerate eye, who spends his life in study, has no interest in the outward world, hears nothing of its din, and cares nothing for its honors, who would gladly learn and gladly teach, whose whole soul is taken up with a few books of "Aristotle and his Philosophy,"—to the merchant in the railway, with a head full of sums, an idea that tallow is "up," a conviction that teas are "lively," and a mind reverting perpetually from the little volume which he reads to these mundane topics, to the railway, to the shares, to the buying and bargaining universe. We must not wonder that the outside of books is so different, when the inner nature of those for whom they are written is so changed.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: books


This is the age of dramatic art, when men wonder at the big characters of old, as schoolboys at the words of Aeschylus, and try to find in their own breasts the roots of those monstrous, but artistically developed impersonations.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Literary Studies

Tags: age


The greatest enjoyment possible to man was that which this philosophy promises its votaries--the pleasure of being always right, and always reasoning--without ever being bound to look at anything.

WALTER BAGEHOT

introduction, The English Constitution


The Congress declares war, but they would find it very difficult, according to the recent construction of their laws, to compel the President to make a peace.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: Congress


The dignified parts of Government are those which bring it force—which attract its motive power. The efficient parts only employ that power. The comely parts of a Government HAVE need, for they are those upon which its vital strength depends. They may not do anything definite that a simpler polity would not do better; but they are the preliminaries, the needful prerequisites of ALL work. They raise the army, though they do not win the battle.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: government


The English Constitution, in a word, is framed on the principle of choosing a single sovereign authority, and making it good; the American, upon the principle of having many sovereign authorities, and hoping that their multitude may atone for their inferiority.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: authority


Respect is traditional; it is given not to what is proved to be good, but to what is known to be old.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution


A statesman ought to show his own nature, and talk in a palpable way what is to him important truth. And so he will both guide and benefit the nation. But if, especially at a time when great ignorance has an unusual power in public affairs, he chooses to accept and reiterate the decisions of that ignorance, he is only the hireling of the nation, and does little save hurt it.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: ignorance


The best mode of testing what we owe to the Queen is to make a vigorous effort of the imagination, and see how we should get on without her.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: effort


It should be observed, too, in fairness to the unroyal species of Cabinet government, that it is exempt from one of the greatest and most characteristic defects of the royal species. Where there is no Court there can be no evil influence from a Court.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

Tags: evil


The world knows what you seem; it does not know what you are.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution