Thomas Macaulay Quotes & Sayings

We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative. — Thomas B. Macaulay

But thou, through good and evil, praise and blame,
Wilt not thou love me for myself alone?
Yes, thou wilt love me with exceeding love,
And I will tenfold all that love repay;
Still smiling, though the tender may reprove,
Still faithful, though the trusted may betray. — Thomas B. Macaulay

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the great Abbey which has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Boswell is the first of biographers. — Thomas B. Macaulay

This is the highest miracle of genius, that things which are not should be as though they were, that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another. — Thomas B. Macaulay

I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

The Puritans hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The whole history of Christianity proves that she has little indeed to fear from persecution as a foe, but much to fear from persecution as an ally. — Thomas B. Macaulay

By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words, what the painter does by means of colors. — Thomas B. Macaulay

History begins in novel and ends in essay. — Thomas B. Macaulay

In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves? — Thomas Babington Macaulay

In the plays of Shakespeare man appears as he is, made up of a crowd of passions which contend for the mastery over him, and govern him in turn. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A vice sanctioned by the general opinion is merely a vice. The evil terminates in itself. A vice condemned by the general opinion produces a pernicious effect on the whole character. The former is a local malady; the latter, constitutional taint. When the reputation of the offender is lost, he too often flings the remainder of his virtue after it in despair. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A man who should act, for one day, on the supposition that all the people about him were influenced by the religion which they professed would find himself ruined by night. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Re: Robert Montgomery's Poems His writing bears the same relation to poetry which a Turkey carpet bears to a picture. There are colours in the Turkey carpet out of which a picture might be made. There are words in Mr. Montgomery's writing which, when disposed in certain orders and combinations,have made, and will make again, good poetry. But, as they now stand, they seem to be put together on principle in such a manner as to give no image of anything in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. — Thomas B. Macaulay

How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old. — Thomas B. Macaulay

No war ought ever to be undertaken but under circumstances which render all intercourse of courtesy between the combatants impossible. It is a bad thing that men should hate each other; but it is far worse that they should contract the habit of cutting one another's throats without hatred. War is never lenient but where it is wanton; when men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge: this may be bad; but it is human nature. — Thomas B. Macaulay

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with us. You will have your Manchesters and Birminghams; and, in those Manchesters and Birminghams, hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The Orientals have another word for accident; it is "kismet,"
fate. — Thomas B. Macaulay

And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best? — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Office of itself does much to equalize politicians. It by no means brings all characters to a level; but it does bring high characters down and low characters up towards a common standard. — Thomas B. Macaulay

We deplore the outrages which accompany revolutions. But the more violent the outrages, the more assured we feel that a revolution was necessary. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

What society wants is a new motive, not a new cant. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Sense can support herself handsomely in most countries on some eighteen pence a day; but for fantasy, planets and solar systems, will not suffice. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Ambrose Phillips ... who had the honor of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name, Namby Pamby. — Thomas B. Macaulay

In employing fiction to make truth clear and goodness attractive, we are only following the example which every Christian ought to propose to himself. — Thomas B. Macaulay

If the Sunday had not been observed as a day of rest during the last three centuries, I have not the slightest doubt that we should have been at this moment a poorer people and less civilized. — Thomas B. Macaulay

He had done that which could never be forgiven; he was in the grasp of one who never forgave. — Thomas B. Macaulay

If ever Shakespeare rants, it is not when his imagination is hurrying him along, but when he is hurrying his imagination along. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Genius is subject to the same laws which regulate the production of cotton and molasses. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Shakespeare has had neither equal nor second. — Thomas B. Macaulay

It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There is no country in Europe which is so easy to over-run as Spain; there is no country which it is more difficult to conquer. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

The desire of posthumous fame and the dread of posthumous reproach and execration are feelings from the influence of which scarcely any man is perfectly free, and which in many men are powerful and constant motives of action. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Persecution produced its natural effect on them. It found them a sect; it made them a faction. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Highest among those who have exhibited human nature by means of dialogue stands Shakespeare. His variety is like the variety of nature,
endless diversity, scarcely any monstrosity. — Thomas B. Macaulay

We must judge of a form of government by it's general tendency, not by happy accidents — Thomas B. Macaulay

The real object of the drama is the exhibition of human character. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A kind of semi-Solomon, half-knowing everything, from the cedar to the hyssop. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

The merit of poetry, in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words, but circuitously by means of imaginative associations, which serve as its conductors. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Was none who would be foremost
To lead such dire attack;
But those behind cried "Forward!"
And those before cried "Back! — Thomas B. Macaulay

The opinion of the great body of the reading public is very materially influenced even by the unsupported assertions of those who assume a right to criticize. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner; yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis. — Thomas B. Macaulay

So true it is, that nature has caprices which art cannot imitate. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Complete self-devotion is woman's part. — Thomas B. Macaulay

It is good to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human nature, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust on the weaknesses which are found in the strongest minds. — Thomas B. Macaulay

He had a head which statuaries loved to copy, and a foot the deformity of which the beggars in the streets mimicked. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Every generation enjoys the use of a vast hoard bequeathed to it by antiquity, and transmits that hoard, augmented by fresh acquisitions, to future ages. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Nothing is so useless as a general maxim. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

A government cannot be wrong in punishing fraud or force, but it is almost certain to be wrong if, abandoning its legitimate function, it tells private individuals that it knows their business better than they know it themselves. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads. — Thomas B. Macaulay

I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A single breaker may recede; but the tide is evidently coming in. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man. — Thomas B. Macaulay

This is the best book ever written by any man on the wrong side of a question of which he is profoundly ignorant. — Thomas B. Macaulay

From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness,-a system in which the two great commandments were to hate your neighbour and to love your neighbour's wife. — Thomas B. Macaulay

People who take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Satire is, indeed, the only sort of composition in which the Latin poets whose works have come down to us were not mere imitators of foreign models; and it is therefore the sort of composition in which they have never been excelled. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Everywhere there is a class of men who cling with fondness to whatever is ancient, and who, even when convinced by overpowering reasons that innovation would be beneficial, consent to it with many misgivings and forebodings. We find also everywhere another class of men, sanguine in hope, bold in speculation, always pressing forward, quick to discern the imperfections of whatever exists, disposed to think lightly of the risks and inconveniences which attend improvements and disposed to give every change credit for being an improvement. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Then none was for a party; Than all were for the state; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great: Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold: The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Western literature has been more influenced by the Bible than any other book. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The business of everybody is the business of nobody. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Every age and every nation has certain characteristic vices, which prevail almost universally, which scarcely any person scruples to avow, and which even rigid moralists but faintly censure. Succeeding generations change the fashion of their morals with the fashion of their hats and their coaches; take some other kind of wickedness under their patronage, and wonder at the depravity of their ancestors. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The Church is the handmaid of tyranny and the steady enemy of liberty. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

No particular man is necessary to the state. We may depend on it that, if we provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions will provide it with great men. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Thus spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate. To all men upon this Earth, death cometh soon or late. And what better way to die, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of ones' fathers, and the temples of ones' G/Ds. For the tender mother, who dandled him to rest. And for the wife, who nurses his baby at her breast. And for the holy maidens, who feed the eternal flame. To save them from false sextus, that wrought the deed of shame. Lay down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may. I, with two more at either side, shall hold the foe in play. In Yon straight path a thousand may well be stop by three. Now who will stand on either hand and hold the bridge with me? — Thomas Babington Macaulay

Power, safely defied, touches its downfall. — Thomas B. Macaulay

History, is made up of the bad actions of extraordinary men and woman. All the most noted destroyers and deceivers of our species, all the founders of arbitrary governments and false religions have been extraordinary people; and nine tenths of the calamities that have befallen the human race had no other origin than the union of high intelligence with low desires. — Thomas B. Macaulay

History distinguishes what is accidental and transitory in human nature from what is essential and immutable. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Oh, wherefore come ye forth in triumph from the north,
With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red?
And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout?
And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread? — Thomas B. Macaulay

Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

To carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. When an extreme case calls for that remedy which is in its own nature most violent, and which, in such cases, is a remedy only because it is violent, it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid war can do nothing which negotiation or submission will do better: and to act on any other principle is, not to save blood and money, but to squander them. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Our judgment ripens; our imagination decays. We cannot at once enjoy the flowers of the Spring of life and the fruits of its Autumn. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Our rulers will best promote the improvement of the nation by strictly confining themselves to their own legitimate duties, by leaving capital to find its most lucrative course, commodities their fair price, industry and intelligence their natural reward, idleness and folly their natural punishment, by maintaining peace, by defending property, by diminishing the price of law, and by observing strict economy in every department of the state. Let the Government do this: the People will assuredly do the rest. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Even Holland and Spain have been positively, though not relatively, advancing. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The highest eulogy which can be pronounced on the Revolution of 1688 is this that this was our last Revolution. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons. — Thomas B. Macaulay

To punish a man because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked. — Thomas Babington Macaulay

In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm. — Thomas Babington Macaulay