On the record
Our Government cannot buy for minor clerks the best ability of the nation in the cheap currency of pure honour, and no Government is rich enough to buy very much of it in money.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Our Government cannot buy for minor clerks the best ability of the nation in the cheap currency of pure honour, and no…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot critiques the limitations of government in attracting top talent, emphasizing the inadequacy of both honor and money as incentives.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
They are solely concerned with his attractiveness as a candidate; they need not regard his efficiency as a ruler.
They are above corruption because they are the corruptors.
And, to the effectual maintenance of such a separation, the exclusion of the President's Ministers from the legislature is essential.
But the Jewish advantage never did so; beginning in religion, contrary to a thousand analogies, it remained religious.
Other voices in this conversation
