Walter Bagehot Quotes on Change
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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.
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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.
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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
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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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The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.