Walter Bagehot quotes - Page : 2

" 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. " # Exaggeration # Vice # Virtue

" The most intellectual of men are moved quite as much by the circumstances which they are used to as by their own will. The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economized by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null. " # Free Will # Habit # Economy and Economics

" 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. " # Government # Freedom # Power

" The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards. " # Institutions # Civilization # History and Historians

" Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner. At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete. " # Law and Lawyers # Change # Cities and City Life

" 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. " # Luxury # Pain # Civilization

" We must not let daylight in upon the magic. " # Magic

" Men who do not make advances to women are apt to become victims to women who make advances to them. " # Men and Women

" What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind. " # Mind

" 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. " # Nations # Politicians and Politics # Truth