Thomas B. Macaulay Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Integrity

  70 Copy quote

• More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Envy, Sin, Despise

  4 Copy quote

• The Church is the handmaid of tyranny and the steady enemy of liberty.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Enemy, Atheism, Church

  3 Copy quote

• I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Kings, Book, Desire

  27 Copy quote

• 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

  Pride, People, Achievement

  6 Copy quote

• People crushed by law have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Law, People, Enemy

  30 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Race, People

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Life, Spring, Flower

  7 Copy quote

• A page digested is better than a volume hurriedly read.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Pages, Volume

  9 Copy quote

• It is the age that forms the man, not the man that forms the age.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Greatness, Men, Age

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  Men, Thinking, Class

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Government, Individual, Force

  14 Copy quote

• In after-life you may have friends--fond, dear friends; but never will you have again the inexpressible love and gentleness lavished upon you which none but a mother bestows.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Mother, May, Dear Friend

  4 Copy quote

• Books are becoming everything to me. If I had at this moment any choice in life, I would bury myself in one of those immense libraries...and never pass a waking hour without a book before me.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Book, Choices, Library

  4 Copy quote

• I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Funny, Stupid, Thinking

  6 Copy quote

• Our estimate of a character always depends much on the manner in which that character affects our own interests and passions.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Passion, Character, Prejudice

  3 Copy quote

• A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Tyrants, Constitution, Despots

  21 Copy quote

• Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Confusion, Political

  "Southey's Colloquies on Society" by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1830.

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Peace, Government, Law

  10 Copy quote

• 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 B. Macaulay

  Government, Liberty, Useless

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Humanity, Mind, Weakness

  "Warren Hastings". Book by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1851.

  6 Copy quote

• Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Belief, Impossible

  3 Copy quote

• The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Logic, Tendencies

  6 Copy quote

• I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Civilization

  Letter to Henry Stephens Randall, May 23, 1857.

  6 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Oratory, Persuasion, Power Of Persuasion

  87 Copy quote

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