Quote

We see but one aspect of our neighbor, as we see but one side of the moon in either case there is also a dark half, which is unknown to us. We all come down to dinner, but each has a room to himself.

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
Cases
Unknown
Side
Neighbor
Either
Dinner
Sides
Aspect
Dark
Case
Half
Moon
Also
Room
Come
Rooms

More quotes by Walter Bagehot

Image
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
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
The most essential mental quality for a free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent and on a large scale, is much stupidity.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
Walter Bagehot
Image
To a great experience one thing is essential, an experiencing nature.
Walter Bagehot
Image
You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.
Walter Bagehot
Image
But of all nations in the world the English are perhaps the least a nation of pure philosophers.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Capital must be propelled by self-interest it cannot be enticed by benevolence.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.
Walter Bagehot
Image
The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be.
Walter Bagehot
Image
In early times every sort of advantage tends to become a military advantage such is the best way, then, to keep it alive. But the Jewish advantage never did so beginning in religion, contrary to a thousand analogies, it remained religious.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself.
Walter Bagehot
Image
The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.
Walter Bagehot
Image
The Ethiop gods have Ethiop lips, Bronze cheeks, and woolly hair The Grecian gods are like the Greeks, As keen-eyed, cold and fair.
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
Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Women--one half the human race at least--care fifty times more for a marriage than a ministry.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Not only does a bureaucracy tend to under-government in point of quality it tends to over-government in point of quantity.
Walter Bagehot