On the record
But hardly any young man destitute of experience is able to separate end and means.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “But hardly any young man destitute of experience is able to separate end and means.”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot notes that inexperienced young men often struggle to distinguish between their goals and the methods to achieve them.
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More from Walter Bagehot
Just so the lines of our Constitution were framed in old eras of sparse population, few wants, and simple habits; and we adhere in seeming to their shape, though civilisation has come with its dangers, complications, and enjoyments.
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.
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.
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.
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