Quotes from The English Constitution — Walter Bagehot
1826–1877 England
← All quotes by Walter Bagehot
42 quotes
A great assembly is as soon spoiled by over-indulgence as a little child.
A pompous man easily sweeps away the suggestions of those beneath him.
The natural impulse of the English people is to resist authority.
A constitutional sovereign must in the common course of government be a man of but common ability.
Cabinet governments educate the nation; the presidential does not educate it, and may corrupt it.
Women—one half the human race at least—care fifty times more for a marriage than a ministry.
The masses are infinitely too ignorant to make much of governing themselves.
The trained official hates the rude, untrained public.
France elects its ruler in the streets of Paris.
The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose?
The masses of Englishmen are not fit for an elective government.
To wish to be a despot ... marks in our day an uncultivated mind.
The ultimate authority in the English Constitution is a newly-elected House of Commons.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Walter Bagehot (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.