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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.

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
Used
Intellectual
Much
Habit
Kind
Circumstances
Would
Results
Null
Men
Quite
Sleepy
Sleep
Voluntary
Small
Active
Part
Moved

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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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So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.
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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
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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 peculiar essence of our banking system is an unprecedented trust between man and man. And when that trust is much weakened by hidden causes, a small accident may greatly hurt it, and a great accident for a moment may almost destroy it.
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Money is economic power.
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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 a bit only in disproportionate, unnatural and revolting prominence.
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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.
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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 promises be kept?
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Go ahead and do the impossible. It's worth the look on the faces of those who said you couldn't.
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Adventure is the life of commerce, but caution is the life of banking.
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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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Great and terrible systems of divinity and philosophy lie round about us, which, if true, might drive a wise man mad.
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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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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.
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The purse strings tie us to our kind.
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