Frasi di Walter Bagehot
Walter Bagehot
Data di nascita: 3. Febbraio 1826
Data di morte: 24. Marzo 1877
Walter Bagehot è stato un giornalista britannico, che scrisse di politica, affari economici ed argomenti correlati.
Frasi Walter Bagehot
„Uno dei dolori più forti per la natura umana è causato dal dolore di una nuova idea.“
— Walter Bagehot
da Physics and Politics, Ch. 5, "The Age of Discussion"
„È bene non avere vizi, è male non avere tentazioni.“
— Walter Bagehot
da "Sir George Cornewall Lewis", in Biographical Studies
„The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose?“
— Walter Bagehot
Context: But the mass of the old electors did not analyse very much: they liked to have one of their "betters" to represent them; if he was rich they respected him much; and if he was a lord, they liked him the better. The issue put before these electors was, which of two rich people will you choose? And each of those rich people was put forward by great parties whose notions were the notions of the rich—whose plans were their plans. The electors only selected one or two wealthy men to carry out the schemes of one or two wealthy associations.
Introduction, p. xiii
The "old electors" Bagehot refers to were the £10 borough householders enfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832.
„The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step.“
— Walter Bagehot
Context: The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better.
Ch. 2, The Use of Conflict
„The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the, benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.“
— Walter Bagehot
Context: I wish the art of benefiting men had kept pace with the art of destroying them; for though war has become slow, philanthropy has remained hasty. The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the, benevolence of mankind does most good or harm. Great good, no doubt, philanthropy does, but then it also does great evil. It augments so much vice, it multiplies so much suffering, it brings to life such great populations to suffer and to be vicious, that it is open to argument whether it be or be not an evil to the world, and this is entirely because excellent people fancy that they can do much by rapid action — that they will most benefit the world when they most relieve their own feelings; that as soon as an evil is seen "something" ought to be done to stay and prevent it.
Ch. 5
„The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything.“
— Walter Bagehot
Context: The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.
Shakespeare
„All the inducements of early society tend to foster immediate action; all its penalties fall on the man who pauses; the traditional wisdom of those times was never weary of inculcating that "delays are dangerous," and that the sluggish man — the man "who roasteth not that which he took in hunting" — will not prosper on the earth, and indeed will very soon perish out of it. And in consequence an inability to stay quiet, an irritable desire to act directly, is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.“
— Walter Bagehot
Ch. 5
„Whatever expenditure is sanctioned—even when it is sanctioned against the ministry's wish—the ministry must find the money. Accordingly, they have the strongest motive to oppose extra outlay.... The ministry is (so to speak) the breadwinner of the political family, and has to meet the cost of philanthropy and glory; just as the head of a family has to pay for the charities of his wife and the toilette of his daughters.“
— Walter Bagehot
No. V, The House of Commons, p. 137
„Nations touch at their summits.“
— Walter Bagehot
No. IV, The House of Lords, p. 120
„I started out by believing God for a newer car than the one I was driving. I started out believing God for a nicer apartment than I had. Then I moved up.“
— Walter Bagehot
Jim Bakker, quoted in Redeeming America: Piety and Politics in the New Christian Right by Michael Lienesch (UNC Press, 1993), p. 45
