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

  76 Copy quote

• Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Learning, Ignorance, Half

  4 Copy quote

• Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Politeness, Benevolence, Wells

  8 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

  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.

  7 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

  28 Copy quote

• With the dead there is no rivalry, with the dead there is no change.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Learning, Personality, Aging

  4 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

  8 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

  31 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Pages, Volume

  11 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

  14 Copy quote

• A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  History, May, Incidents

  10 Copy quote

• The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Beauty, Beautiful, World

  9 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Enemy, Atheism, Church

  4 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

  15 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

  4 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Funny, Stupid, Thinking

  7 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

  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.

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Passion, Men, Play

  4 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

  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.

  6 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

  5 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.

  4 Copy quote

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

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  Tyrants, Constitution, Despots

  22 Copy quote

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