Walter Bagehot - Collected Quotes

"Nature does not wear her most useful lessons on her sleeve; she only yields her most productive secrets, those which yield the most wealth and the most ‘fruit’, to those who have gone through a long process of preliminary abstraction." (Walter Bagehot, "Physics and Politics", 1869)

"One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea." (Walter Bagehot, "Physics and Politics", 1869)

"Life is a school of probability." (Walter Bagehot)

"Taken as a whole, the universe is absurd. There seems an unalterable contradiction between the human mind and its employments." (Walter Bagehot)

"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." (Walter Bagehot)

"We are startled to find a universe we did not expect." (Walter Bagehot)