On the record
The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economised by a sleepy kind of habit, its results would be null.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “The active voluntary part of a man is very small, and if it were not economised by a sleepy kind of habit, its results…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot posits that human action is largely driven by habitual behavior rather than conscious will.
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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.
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.
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.
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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