Thomas B. Macaulay

He had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.

— 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 B. Macaulay

She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.

— 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 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

The effect of violent dislike between groups has always created an indifference to the welfare and honor of the state.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

The reluctant obedience of distant provinces generally costs more than it [The Territory] is worth. Empires which branch out widely are often more flourishing for a little timely pruning.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In proportion as men know more and think more they look less at individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and worse poems.

— Thomas B. 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 B. Macaulay

We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?

— 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

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Charles V. said that a man who knew four languages was worth four men; and Alexander the Great so valued learning, that he used to say he was more indebted to Aristotle for giving him knowledge that, than his father Philip for giving him life.

— 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

We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. 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 B. Macaulay

The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

A few more days, and this essay will follow the Defensio Populi to the dust and silence of the upper shelf... For a month or two it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then be withdrawn, to make room for the forthcoming novelties.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Time advances: facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness. But soon the light, which at first illuminated only the loftiest eminences, descends on the plain, and penetrates to the deepest valley. First come hints, then fragments of systems, then defective systems, then complete and harmonious systems. The sound opinion, held for a time by one bold speculator, becomes the opinion of a small minority, of a strong minority, of a majority of mankind. Thus, the great progress goes on.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

The puritan hated bear baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!

— Thomas B. Macaulay

A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

A system in which the two great commandments are to hate your neighbor and to love your neighbor's wife.

— Thomas B. Macaulay