A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities. – Walter Bagehot
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. – Walter Bagehot
An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind. – Walter Bagehot
Writers like teeth are divided into incisors and grinders. – Walter Bagehot
It is only when you watch the dense mass of thousands of ants, crowded together around the Hill, blackening the ground, that you begin to see the whole beast, and now you observe it thinking, planning, calculating. It is an intelligence, a kind of live computer, with crawling bits for its wits. – Lewis Thomas