Walter Bagehot Quotes
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.
Bagehot, Walter. Physics and Politics. Henry S. King & Co., 1872, p. 74.
Westmoreland’s critics point to this quotation as an illustration of exactly why he was the wrong man for the job. As Vietnam Supreme Commander, he controlled more firepower than any other military leader in history and yet he had “no room” for thought or reason much less mercy. Subsequent commanders of U. S. military efforts were much more sophisticated like, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Wesley Clark who were leading American thinkers, sophisticated at political and military reasoning and very capable of mercy. The modern American military requires men and women who are skilled at thinking and reasoning.
The General Court was then the legislature.
Stevens was totally burned out and quit. His predecessor had also been burned out at the enormous scope of the task. TR had gone to Panama himself to boost morale—the first time a President had ever left the United States. He wanted a manager who would stick with the job. An army engineer, Colonel George Washington Goethals was appointed and he became a general when he finished the long incredible job. The famous graphic was when the President mounted and took the controls of one of the huge steam shovels on the canal.
Walter Bagehot was a British journalist, businessman, and essayist, who wrote extensively about government, economics, literature and race.
