Life & Wisdom Quote by Augustus Hare

“Follow public opinion” sounds deferential until Hare snaps the metaphor into place: the coachman follows his horses only in the sense that he moves where they move, but on his terms, with leather in hand. The line is a Victorian corrective to the pious democratic slogan that leaders should simply mirror “the people.” Hare concedes the inevitability of mass momentum while quietly insisting that surrender is not virtue. The statesman who treats public opinion as a master becomes a passenger; the one who treats it as horsepower becomes, at least in theory, responsible for the direction and the speed.

The wit is in the sly reversal. “Follow,” in ordinary speech, implies obedience. Hare keeps the verb, then swaps its moral content. He’s not attacking public opinion as stupid; he’s demoting it from sovereign to instrument. That’s a telling 19th-century anxiety: expanding electorates, booming newspapers, and the early machinery of mass politics made “opinion” feel less like considered judgment and more like a skittish animal capable of bolting.

The subtext carries both elitism and realism. Elitism, because it presumes the statesman has superior sight and steadier nerves than the crowd. Realism, because it admits leadership can’t ignore the street; it must harness it. The reins matter: not brute force, but calibrated restraint. Hare’s ideal politician isn’t a populist ventriloquist or a lonely prophet. He’s a driver who respects the team’s power precisely because he knows what happens when it runs unchecked.