Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.
Walter BagehotRead
The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards
Interpretation
What this quote means
Civilization's progress often involves ideas and institutions that become harmful over time.
Walter Bagehot's quote reflects on the evolution of civilization, emphasizing that many beliefs and systems that initially served a vital purpose can later become detrimental. This highlights the need for continuous evaluation of our structures and ideologies, as what once contributed to societal growth can become obsolete or even harmful if not reassessed in light of changing circumstances.
Themes
CivilizationCreedsInstitutionsEvolutionChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on societal progress, one might say, 'As Walter Bagehot observed, the history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.'
More from Walter Bagehot
All quotes βIt is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
Walter BagehotRead
War both needs and generates certain virtues; not the highest, but what may be called the preliminary virtues, as valor, veracity, the spirit of obedience, the habit of discipline. Any of these, and of others like them, when possessed by a nation, and no matter how generated, will give them a military advantage, and make them more likely to stay in the race of nations.
Walter BagehotRead
Efficiency in an assembly requires a solid mass of steady votes; and these are collected by a deferential attachment to particular men, or by a belief in the principles that those men represent, and they are maintained by fear of those men - by the fear that if you vote against them, you may soon yourself have no vote at all.
Walter BagehotRead
Life is a compromise of what your ego wants to do, what experience tells you to do, and what your nerves let you do.
Walter BagehotRead
The most melancholy of human reflections, perhaps, is that, on the whole, it is a question whether the benevolence of mankind does most good or harm.
Walter BagehotRead
Similar quotes
Evil is knowing better, but willingly doing worse.
Philip ZimbardoRead
We come together only to go apart again. The law of life can't be avoided. The law comes into operation the moment we detach ourselves from our mother's womb. All struggle & misery in life is due to our attempt to arrest this law or get away from it or in allowing ourselves to be hurt by it. The fact must be recognized. A profound unmitigated loneliness is the only truth of life. All else is false. The law of life. No sense in battling against it.
R.K. NarayanRead
We all have known good critics, who have stamped out poet's hopes; Good statesmen, who pulled ruin on the state; Good patriots, who, for a theory, risked a cause; Good kings, who disemboweled for a tax; Good Popes, who brought all good to jeopardy; Good Christians, who sat still in easy-chairs; And damned the general world for standing up. Now, may the good God pardon all good men!
Elizabeth Barrett BrowningRead
The culture industry not so much adapts to the reactions of its customers as it counterfeits them.
Theodor AdornoRead
Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution.
Susan SontagRead
Grace finds us beggars but leaves us debtors.
Augustus TopladyRead