On the record
A fool, who has publicly to explain great affairs, who has publicly to answer detective questions, who has publicly to argue against able and quick opponents, must soon be shown to be a fool.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “A fool, who has publicly to explain great affairs, who has publicly to answer detective questions, who has publicly to…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot warns that public scrutiny can quickly reveal incompetence in those who must explain complex matters.
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They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
And, to the effectual maintenance of such a separation, the exclusion of the President's Ministers from the legislature is essential.
Nothing promotes intellect like intellectual discussion, and nothing promotes intellectual discussion so much as government by discussion.
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