On the record
The notion of a far-seeing and despotic statesman, who can lay down plans for ages yet unborn, is a fancy generated by the pride of the human intellect to which facts give no support.
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Walter Bagehot
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gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The notion of a far-seeing and despotic statesman, who can lay down plans for ages yet unborn, is a fancy generated by…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot critiques the unrealistic expectations of statesmen who believe they can plan for the distant future.
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More from Walter Bagehot
That a House of Commons may work well it must perform, as we saw, five functions well: it must elect a Ministry well, legislate well, teach the nation well, express the nation's will well, bring matters to the nation's attention well.
The nation then selected the English policy, but the Crown chose the English Ministers.
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
The work would be done so well that we should not want any one to look over or revise it.
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