Political Quotes

Walter Bagehot: “It may be very wrong, but it is sure to be unique; and if it is right it is sure to contain matter of great magnitude…”

On the record
It may be very wrong, but it is sure to be unique; and if it is right it is sure to contain matter of great magnitude, for it is only a first-class matter in distant things which a free people ever sees or learns.
Said by
Walter Bagehot

Editor's note · Context

He suggests that even flawed opinions from a free people can contain significant insights on important matters.

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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.

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The casual line was traced according to the strength of deceased combatants; succeeding generations fought elsewhere; and the hesitating line of a half-drawn battle was left to stand for a perpetual limit.

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It is natural that those who by special and admirable culture have come to look at all things upon the artistic side, should start back from these queer peculiarities.

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These anomalies, in a hundred instances, mark the old boundaries of a constitutional struggle.

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