161 Quotes by 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.

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

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

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opinion rather than undergo it.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.

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

Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.

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

We must not let daylight in upon the magic.