Walter Bagehot

Every trouble in life is a joke compared to madness.

In truth, poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.

[Of Guizot] A Puritan born in France by mistake.

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

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor... Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, …

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

The Ethiop gods have Ethiop lips, Bronze cheeks, and woolly hair; The Grecian gods are like the Greeks, As keen-eyed, cold and fair.

A highly developed moral nature joined to an undeveloped intellectual nature, an undeveloped artistic nature, and a very limited religious nature, is of necessity repulsive. It represents a bit of human nature — a good bit, of course, but …

The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the …

The purse strings tie us to our kind.

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

The name ‘London Banker’ had especially a charmed value. He was supposed to represent, and often did represent, a certain union of pecuniary sagacity and educated refinement which was scarcely to be found in any other part of society.

The less money lying idle the greater is the dividend.

Credit means that a certain confidence is given, and a certain trust reposed. Is that trust justified? and is that confidence wise? These are the cardinal questions. To put it more simply credit is a set of promises to pay; will those …

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."

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.

an inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.

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

"Maternity," it has been said, "is a matter of fact, paternity is a matter of opinion."

The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step.

The natural impulse of the English people is to resist authority.

Our revolution has been called the minimum of a revolution, because in law, at least, it only changed the dynasty, but exactly on that account it was the greatest shock to the common multitude, who see the dynasty but see nothing else.

The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing personages of a splendid procession: it is by them the mob are influenced; it is they whom the spectators cheer. The real rulers are secreted in second-rate carriages; no …

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.