Walter Bagehot

We see but one aspect of our neighbor, as we see but one side of the moon; in either case there is…

— Walter Bagehot

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

— Walter Bagehot

The mystic reverence, the religious allegiance, which are essential to a true monarchy, are imaginative sentiments that no legislature can manufacture in…

— Walter Bagehot

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.

— Walter Bagehot

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

— Walter Bagehot

“The greatest please in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

— Walter Bagehot

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It...makes you think that after all, your…

— Walter Bagehot

Business is really more agreeable than pleasure; it interests the whole mind ... more deeply. But it does not look as if…

— Walter Bagehot

To a great experience one thing is essential, an experiencing nature.

— Walter Bagehot

All the inducements of early society tend to foster immediate action; all its penalties fall on the man who pauses; the traditional…

— Walter Bagehot

The great pleasure of life is doing for pleasure things I do not like to do.

— Walter Bagehot

Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them.

— Walter Bagehot

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

— Walter Bagehot

The Ethiop gods have Ethiop lips, Bronze cheeks, and woolly hair; The Grecian gods are like the Greeks, As keen-eyed, cold and…

— Walter Bagehot

In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked…

— Walter Bagehot

We think of Euclid as of fine ice; we admire Newton as we admire the peak of Teneriffe. Even the intensest labors,…

— Walter Bagehot

A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.

— Walter Bagehot

Life is not a set campaign, but an irregular work, and the main forces in it are not overt resolutions, but latent…

— Walter Bagehot

Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak…

— Walter Bagehot

An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made…

— Walter Bagehot

It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition'; that it was the first government which made a criticism…

— Walter Bagehot

In my youth I hoped to do great things; now I shall be satisfied to get through without scandal.

— Walter Bagehot

One cannot make men good by Act of Parliament.

— Walter Bagehot