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| Walter Bagehot b: Langport, England., Feb 3, 1826 d: Langport, England., Mar 24, 1877 English. Economist. Editor. Wrote English Constitution, 1867; founded, edited Economist, 1860-1877.
A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities. A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people. A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind. 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 minute enjoyment. An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle. 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. I started out by believing God for a newer car than the one I was driving. I started out believing God for a nicer apartment than I had. Then I moved up. No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist. One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. Open-mindedness should not be fostered because, as Scripture teaches, Truth is great and will prevail, nor because, as Milton suggests, Truth will always win in a free and open encounter. It should be fostered for its own sake. 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 best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other. The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. 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 minds. The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economized by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null. Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders. |
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