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Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.

Walter Bagehot

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Walter Bagehot
Age: 51 †
Born: 1826
Born: February 3
Died: 1877
Died: March 24
Businessperson
Economist
Engineer
Journalist
Political Scientist
Politician
Sociologist
Langport
Somerset
Particular
Parliamentary
Politics
Dullness
Success
Indication
Political
Excellence
Government
Test
Matter
Sign
Good
Tests
Matters

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Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.
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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 their conscience that it is wrong.
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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
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The essence of Toryism is enjoyment?but as far as communicating and establishing your creed are concernedtrya little pleasure. The way to keep up old customs is, to enjoy old customs the way to be satisfied with the present state of things is, to enjoy that state of things.
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Stupidity is nature's favorite resource for preserving consistency of opinion.
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No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.
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The business of banking ought to be simple. If it is hard it is wrong. The only securities which a banker, using money that he may be asked at short notice to repay, ought to touch, are those which are easily saleable and easily intelligible.
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An ambassador is not simply an agent he is also a spectacle.
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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 have a chance for it.
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Poverty is an anomaly to rich people it is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.
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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.
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It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
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It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition' that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself. This critical opposition is the consequence of cabinet government.
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The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
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If you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.
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An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.
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The caucus is a sort of representative meeting which sits voting and voting till they have cut out all the known men against whom much is to be said, and agreed on some unknown man against whom there is nothing known, and therefore nothing to be alleged.
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So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.
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Nations touch at their summits.
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To a great experience one thing is essential, an experiencing nature.
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