Quote

The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.

Walter Bagehot

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Walter Bagehot
Age: 51 †
Born: 1826
Born: February 3
Died: 1877
Died: March 24
Businessperson
Economist
Engineer
Journalist
Political Scientist
Politician
Sociologist
Langport
Somerset
Agreeable
Greatest
Mistake
Belief
Trying

More quotes by Walter Bagehot

Image
But of all nations in the world the English are perhaps the least a nation of pure philosophers.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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
Image
If you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
Walter Bagehot
Image
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards
Walter Bagehot
Image
Nations touch at their summits.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
When great questions end, little parties begin.
Walter Bagehot
Image
What we opprobriously call stupidity, though not an enlivening quality in common society, is nature's favorite resource for preserving steadiness of conduct and consistency of opinion.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A cabinet is a combining committee, a hyphen which joins, a buckle which fastens, the legislative part of the state to the executive part of the state. In its origin it belongs to the one, in its functions it belongs to the other.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
We think of Euclid as of fine ice we admire Newton as we admire the peak of Teneriffe. Even the intensest labors, the most remote triumphs of the abstract intellect, seem to carry us into a region different from our own-to be in a terra incognita of pure reasoning, to cast a chill on human glory.
Walter Bagehot
Image
In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is no match for genius.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Go ahead and do the impossible. It's worth the look on the faces of those who said you couldn't.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A man's mother is his misfortune, but his wife is his fault.
Walter Bagehot