Walter Bagehot
FameRank: 6

"Walter Bagehot" was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, and literature.

If you enjoy these quotes, be sure to check out other famous writers! More Walter Bagehot on Wikipedia.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

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

A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.

History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it.

Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.

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

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.

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

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.

Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men's thoughts, to speak other men's words, to follow other men's habits.