Quote#Politics & Power
The apparent rulers of the English nation are like the most imposing…
Quote byWalter Bagehot · 1826–1877
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The English Constitution (1894), No. VIII, The Pre-Requisites of Cabinet Government, p. 268.
English (original)
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 one cares for them or asks about them, but they are obeyed implicitly and unconsciously by reason of the splendour of those who eclipsed and preceded them.
— Walter Bagehot
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