Behind every man's external life, which he leads in company, there is another which he leads alone, and which he carries with him apart. We see but o… - Walter Bagehot

It always perhaps happens in a great nation, that certain bodies of sensible men posted prominently in its constitution, acquire functions, and usefully exercise functions, which at the outset, no one expected from them, and which do not identify themselves with their original design. This has happened to the House of Lords especially.

A constitutional sovereign must in the common course of government be a man of but common ability. I am afraid, looking to the early acquired feebleness of hereditary dynasties, that we must expect him to be a man of inferior ability. Theory and experience both teach that the education of a prince can be but a poor education, and that a royal family will generally have less ability than other families.

In truth, poverty is an anomaly to rich people. It is very difficult to make out why people who want dinner do not ring the bell.