Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns. – Walter Bagehot
Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other mens thoughts, to speak other mens words, to follow other mens habits. – Walter Bagehot
A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. – Walter Bagehot
The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other peoples minds. – Walter Bagehot
The President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne. – Ralph Waldo Emerson