Quote

Efficiency in an assembly requires a solid mass of steady votes and these are collected by a deferential attachment to particular men, or by a belief in the principles that those men represent, and they are maintained by fear of those men - by the fear that if you vote against them, you may soon yourself have no vote at all.

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
Solid
Politics
Represent
Deferential
Belief
Steady
Collected
Fear
Requires
Maintained
Political
Vote
Votes
May
Soon
Assembly
Men
Mass
Efficiency
Principles
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More quotes by Walter Bagehot

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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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Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, in many respects, not at all suited to civilized circumstances.
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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.
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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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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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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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Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders.
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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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Nothing is more unpleasant than a virtuous person with a mean mind.
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The real essence of work is concentrated energy.
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A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.
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The best security for people's doing their duty is that they should not know anything else to do.
Walter Bagehot
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Money is economic power.
Walter Bagehot
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If you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.
Walter Bagehot
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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
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The characteristic danger of great nations, like the Romans or the English which have a long history of continuous creation, is that they may at last fail from not comprehending the great institutions which they have created
Walter Bagehot
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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.
Walter Bagehot
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An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
Walter Bagehot
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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.
Walter Bagehot
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The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
Walter Bagehot