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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More from Walter Bagehot
I own that I do not entirely sympathise with the horror of these anomalies which haunts some of our best critics.
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.
Subject to this saving remark, however, I not only admit, but maintain, that our Constitution is full of curious oddities, which are impeding and mischievous, and ought to be struck out.
Political philosophy is still more imperfect; it has been framed from observations taken upon regular specimens of politics and States; as to these its teaching is most valuable.
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