161 Quotes by Walter Bagehot

Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.

The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.

It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition'; that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself. This critical opposition is the consequence of cabinet government.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

There seems to be 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 brokerage on hemp? Can an undying creature debit petty expenses and charge for carriage paid? The soul ties its shoes; the mind washes its hands in a basin. All is incongruous.

No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist.

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.

If you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.

The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.