On the record
One sort might easily fall into a temporary and erroneous fanaticism, but all sorts simultaneously are very unlikely to do so.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “One sort might easily fall into a temporary and erroneous fanaticism, but all sorts simultaneously are very unlikely to…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot suggests that while individuals may be swayed by temporary fanaticism, it is unlikely for all groups to be misled simultaneously.
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More from Walter Bagehot
At last it strikes you that they grew up, house by house, on the devious tracks of the old green lanes; and if you follow on to the existing fields, you may often find the change half complete.
Our law very often reminds one of those outskirts of cities where you cannot for a long time tell how the streets come to wind about in so capricious and serpent-like a manner.
These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.
I cannot, therefore, join in the full cry against anomalies; in my judgment it may quickly overrun the scent, and so miss what we should be glad to find.
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