Quote

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.

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
Moment
Except
Ballots
Moments
Nation
Despotism
Government
Return
Returns
Must
Influence
Presidential
Virtue
Boxes
Waiting
Instant
Nations
Till
Electing
Gone
Wait
Ballot

More quotes by Walter Bagehot

Image
A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
Walter Bagehot
Image
Money is economic power.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and, as such, it rivets mankind.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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.
Walter Bagehot
Image
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
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
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
An ambassador is not simply an agent he is also a spectacle.
Walter Bagehot
Image
So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.
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
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 reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
Walter Bagehot
Image
It has been said that England invented the phrase, 'Her Majesty's Opposition'.
Walter Bagehot
Image
A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.
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
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.
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
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
Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.
Walter Bagehot
Image
The purse strings tie us to our kind.
Walter Bagehot