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

  65 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

• 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

• 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

  24 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

• 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

  5 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Tyrants, Constitution, Despots

  21 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

  13 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Pages, Volume

  9 Copy quote

• The doctrine which, from the very first origin of religious dissensions, has been held by bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty to tolerate truth. But when I am the stronger I shall persecute you; for it is my duty to persecute error.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Religious, Errors, Atheism

  "Critical and Miscellaneous Essays". Book by Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay, p. 60, 1843.

  5 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

  9 Copy quote

• Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Advertising, Making Money, Mint

  25 Copy quote

• As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Freedom, Government, Order

  3 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

• 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

  Future, Age, Acquisition

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  Revolution, Violent, Outrage

  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

  3 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

• Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Science, Steps, Leap

  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”

  15 Copy quote

• The business of everybody is the business of nobody.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Business

  6 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

  15 Copy quote

• Free trade, one of the greatest blessings which a government can confer on a people, is in almost every country unpopular.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Country, Blessing, Government

  "Essay on Mitford's History of Greece" by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1824.

  3 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Oratory, Persuasion, Power Of Persuasion

  87 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

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