It is good to be without vices, but it is not good to be without temptations.
Walter BagehotRead
Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Progress often comes at a cost, as what once nurtured us can later harm us.
This quote by Walter Bagehot suggests that the advancements and progress we make in life are often accompanied by sacrifices or negative consequences. The phrase 'early food' refers to the initial benefits or ideas that propel us forward, while 'late poison' highlights the potential pitfalls and repercussions that may arise from those same actions over time, serving as a reminder to critically evaluate our choices and their long-term effects.
Themes
ProgressConsequencesSacrificeGrowthDanger
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about innovation, this quote could highlight the risks associated with new technologies.
More from Walter Bagehot
All quotes βWar 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
Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.
Walter BagehotRead
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The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.
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Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.
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