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Walter Bagehot Quotes (87 quotes)

“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

Source/Notes:
The Collected Works of Walter Bagehot: The literary essays (1965 edition)

“An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.”
―Walter Bagehot

Source/Notes:
The English Constitution (1867 edition), Cornell University Press - ISBN: 9780801490231

“An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.”
―Walter Bagehot

“An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time and labour, he has also to sacrifice his mind too - at least all the characteristics part of it that which is original and most his own.”
―Walter Bagehot

“Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.”
―Walter Bagehot

“Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.”
―Walter Bagehot

“Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.”
―Walter Bagehot

“I started out by believing God for a newer car than the one I was driving. I started out believing God for a nicer apartment than I had. Then I moved up.”
―Walter Bagehot

“In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others; and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.”
―Walter Bagehot

Source/Notes:
The spirit of laws (1900 edition)

“It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.”
―Walter Bagehot

Source/Notes:
Sir George Cornewall Lewis - Biographical Studies (1907)

“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

Source/Notes:
The English Constitution (1867 edition), Cornell University Press - ISBN: 9780801490231

“Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them.”
―Walter Bagehot

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Walter Bagehot

Picture Source: Wikimedia Commons

Walter Bagehot

Born: February 3, 1826

Died: March 24, 1877 (aged 51)

Nationality: English

Occupation: Author, businessman, essayist, journalist

Bio: Walter Bagehot was a British businessman, essayist, and journalist who wrote extensively about literature, government, and economic affairs.

Born on February 3

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“A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is wrong to his family. Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it. And the love of knowledge, in a young mind, is almost a warrant against the inferior excitement of passions and vices.”

— Horace Mann

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