5 Walter Bagehot Quotes on Change

Walter Bagehot quotes on change

1. A political country is like an American forest; you have only to cut down the old trees, and immediately new trees come up to replace them.

11. 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.

12. One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

15. 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.'

52. The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.