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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
Political
Excellence
Government
Test
Matter
Sign
Good
Tests
Matters
Particular
Parliamentary
Politics
Dullness
Success
Indication

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In every particular state of the world, those nations which are strongest tend to prevail over the others and in certain marked peculiarities the strongest tend to be the best.
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One cannot make men good by Act of Parliament.
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We must not let daylight in upon the magic.
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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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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.
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Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence it has not the ballot-box before it its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.
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It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
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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 purse strings tie us to our kind.
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The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.
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The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards
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Nations touch at their summits.
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It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.
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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 real essence of work is concentrated energy - people who really have that in a superior degree by nature are independent of the forms and habits and artifices by which less able and less active people are kept up to their labors.
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Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.
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A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
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A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
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Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.
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