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

  57 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

  27 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

  21 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

  10 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Tyrants, Constitution, Despots

  18 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

  2 Copy quote

• The business of everybody is the business of nobody.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Business

  3 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

  10 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

  6 Copy quote

• In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Age, Human Nature, Found

  0 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Pages, Volume

  5 Copy quote

• Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Science, Steps, Leap

  0 Copy quote

• The history of nations, in the sense in which I use the word, is often best studied in works not professedly historical.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Historical, Use, Nations

  0 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.

  3 Copy quote

• 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

  God, Father, Men

  Thomas Babbington Macaulay, “Horatius”

  11 Copy quote

• Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Advertising, Making Money, Mint

  21 Copy quote

• The Saviour of mankind Himself, in whose blameless life malice could find no act to impeach, has been called in question for words spoken.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Christ, Mankind, Malice

  0 Copy quote

• Even the law of gravitation would be brought into dispute were there a pecuniary interest involved.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Money, Law, Would Be

  1 Copy quote

• Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from 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

  Humor, Government, People

  11 Copy quote

• The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Book, Heart, Men

  "Critical and historical essays. Biographies. Indian penal code. Contributions to Knight's quarterly magazine". Book by Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay, "A Conversation between Mr. Abraham Cowley and Mr. John Milton, Touching The Great Civil War" (August 1824), p. 654, 1873.

  3 Copy quote

• Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration which deceives for the moment both themselves and their auditors.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Auditors, Sophistry

  "Essay, On the Athenian Orators" as quoted in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations, p. 137, 1922.

  7 Copy quote

• We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all before us, and with just as much apparent reason.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Errors, Reason, Said

  0 Copy quote

• What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely and universally true? We know of only one,--and that is not only true, but identical,--that men always act from self-interest.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Men, Self, Humanity

  4 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

  0 Copy quote

• No man who is correctly informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Past, Men, Views

  "History of England" by Thomas B. Macaulay, Vol. I, (Ch. 1), 1849-1861.

  0 Copy quote

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