Quotes by Walter Bagehot

About Walter Bagehot:

Walter Bagehot was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, and literature.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

Walter Bagehot

It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.

Walter Bagehot

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

Walter Bagehot

What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.

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 other men's words, to follow other men's habits.

Walter Bagehot

An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.

Walter Bagehot

The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.

Walter Bagehot

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

Walter Bagehot

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.

Walter Bagehot

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

Walter Bagehot

A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization; like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment.

Walter Bagehot

A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.

Walter Bagehot

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.

Walter Bagehot

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds.

Walter Bagehot

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

Walter Bagehot

Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.

Walter Bagehot

A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.

Walter Bagehot

Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.

Walter Bagehot

Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.

Walter Bagehot

We must not let daylight in upon the magic.

Walter Bagehot

Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.

Walter Bagehot

Author Bio

  • NameWalter Bagehot
  • DescriptionBritish journalist, businessman, and essayist
  • BornFebruary 3, 1826
  • DiedMarch 24, 1877
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionJournalist; Economist; Political Scientist; Writer