A Quote by Walter Bagehot

A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.

Walter Bagehot

Quote Topics

Common Constitutional General Man Opinions Statesman Uncommon

Quote Author

Walter Bagehot
English - Author
February 3, 1826 - March 24, 1877

When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.

Herbert Hoover

Success is uncommon, not to be found by the common man. I'm looking for uncommon people.

Cal Stoll

Success is uncommon and not to be enjoyed by the common man. I'm looking for uncommon people because we want to be successful, not average.

Tony Dungy

People were talking about songs of the common man in order to make the common man. With Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, they were so common it was just uncommon.

Arlo Guthrie

I talked on my blog recently about "uncommon sense." Common sense is called "common" because it reflects cultural consensus. It's common sense to get a good job and save for retirement. But I think we all also have an "uncommon sense," an individual voice that tells us what we're meant to do.

Theodora Goss

No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.

Walter Bagehot

To do well those thing which God ordained to be the common lot of all man-kind, is the truest greatness. To be a successful father or a successful mother is greater than to be a successful general or a successful statesman... We should never be discouraged in those daily tasks which God has ordained to the common lot of man... Let us not be trying to substitute an artificial life for the true one.

Joseph Fielding Smith

People of uncommon abilities generally fall into eccentricities when their sphere of life is not adequate to their abilities.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can't be common, the common man goes nowhere; you have to be uncommon

Herb Brooks

The only thing you will get from common sense, is a common life. Be uncommon and have uncommon sense.

Bryant H. McGill

When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths or to reject absurdities and palpable contradictions.

Baron d'Holbach

When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions.

Baron d'Holbach

Whenever a man boasts much about [his common sense], you may be pretty sure that he has very little sense, either common or uncommon.