On the record
All such ornamental work is a source of friction and error; it prevents the time being marked accurately; each new wheel is a new source of imperfection.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “All such ornamental work is a source of friction and error; it prevents the time being marked accurately; each new wheel…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot warns that ornamental complexities in governance lead to inefficiencies and inaccuracies, advocating for simplicity.
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More from Walter Bagehot
They have given what I may call a CONFIDENCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
Thirdly, we see why so few nations have made rapid advance, and how many have become stationary.
He gave an excellent moral example to his contemporaries, but he is an instance of those whose good dies with them, while their evil lives after them.
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
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