Walter Bagehot (/ˈbædʒət/ BA-jət; 3 February 1826 – 24 March 1877) was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, and literature. Read full biography of Walter Bagehot →
An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.
Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.
All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times... →
So long as there are earnest believers in the world, they will always wish to punish opinions, even if their judgment tells them it is unwise and... →
Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other... →
A severe though not unfriendly critic of our institutions said that the cure for admiring the House of Lords was to go and look at it.
No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist.
Poverty is an anomaly to rich people; it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.
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... →
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... →
Walter Bagehot (/ˈbædʒət/ BA-jət; 3 February 1826 – 24 March 1877) was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, and literature.