Walter Bagehot: “It is only by the competition of customs that bad customs can be eliminated and good customs multiplied.”

In early society, originality in life was forbidden and repressed by the fixed rule of life.

The whole history of civilisation, is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.

I do not think I put this too high when I say that a most important if not the most important object of early legislation was the enforcement of LUCKY rites.

And, to the effectual maintenance of such a separation, the exclusion of the President's Ministers from the legislature is essential.