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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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Walter Bagehot
Age: 51 †
Born: 1826
Born: February 3
Died: 1877
Died: March 24
Businessperson
Economist
Engineer
Journalist
Political Scientist
Politician
Sociologist
Langport
Somerset
Like
Creation
Continuous
Nations
Characteristics
Lasts
Fail
Last
English
History
Institutions
May
Created
Comprehending
Great
Failing
Romans
Long
Danger
Characteristic

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Not only does a bureaucracy tend to under-government in point of quality it tends to over-government in point of quantity.
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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 best security for people's doing their duty is that they should not know anything else to do.
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Life is not a set campaign, but an irregular work, and the main forces in it are not overt resolutions, but latent and half-involuntary promptings.
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A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
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In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is no match for genius.
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The cardinal maxim is, that any aid to a present bad Bank is the surest mode of preventing the establishment of a future good Bank.
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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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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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A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment.
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Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do.
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A Parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people.
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I'm not the kind of writer who's able to block out the world around me. I'm mindful of our own haves and have-nots, how our culture often blames and punishes the have-nots. I worry about our precarious economic and political climate.
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The maxim of science is simply that of common sense-simple cases first begin with seeing how the main force acts when there is as little as possible to impede it, and when you thoroughly comprehend that, add to it in succession the separate effects of each of the incumbering and interfering agencies.
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Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.
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The characteristic merit of the English constitutions is, that its dignified parts are very complicated and somewhat imposing, very old and rather venerable, while its efficient part, at least when in great and critical action, is decidedly simple and modern.
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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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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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The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
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