Walter Bagehot Quotes

1826–1877 England

Walter Bagehot (February 3 1826 – March 24 1877) was an English businessman, essayist and journalist who wrote about literature, government and economics.

England
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Also known as: Bagehot, Walter

Random Walter Bagehot quote

67 quotes

The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose?

The English Constitution (1894)

The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the, benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.

Physics and Politics (1869)

Nobody will understand parliamentary government who fancies it an easy thing, a natural thing, a thing not needing explanation.

The English Constitution (1894)

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

Biographical Studies (1907)

It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.

Biographical Studies (1907)

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

Literary Studies (1879)

Most men of business think "Anyhow this system will probably last my time. It has gone on a long time, and is likely to go on still."

Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873)

Every trouble in life is a joke compared to madness.

The Life of Walter Bagehot (1914)

The greatest enjoyment possible to man was that which this philosophy promises its votaries—the pleasure of being always right, and always reasoning—without ever being bound to look at anything.

The English Constitution (1894)

The masses of Englishmen are not fit for an elective government.

The English Constitution (1894)

Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning; or, pure, ornate, and grotesque art in English poetry.

According to our system the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the enemy of the Exchequer; a whole series of enactments try to protect it from him.

The English Constitution (1894)

To wish to be a despot ... marks in our day an uncultivated mind.

The English Constitution (1894)

The ultimate authority in the English Constitution is a newly-elected House of Commons.

The English Constitution (1894)

Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.

The English Constitution (1894)

Nations touch at their summits.

The English Constitution (1894)

The greatest teacher of all in Parliament, the head-master of the nation, the great elevator of the country—so far as Parliament elevates it—must be the Prime Minister.

The English Constitution (1894)

A political country is like an American forest; you have only to cut down the old trees, and immediately new trees come up to replace them.

The English Constitution (1894)

The Sovereign has, under a constitutional monarchy such as ours, three rights—the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn. And a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others.

The English Constitution (1894)

[T]he two most singular prerogatives of an English king [are] the power of creating new peers and the power of dissolving the Commons.

The English Constitution (1894)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Walter Bagehot (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.