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Quotes by Thomas Babington Macaulay

A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished.
– Thomas Babington 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it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then be withdrawn, to make room for the forthcoming novelties.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 Babington Macaulay
A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
He had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The effect of violent dislike between groups has always created an indifference to the welfare and honor of the state.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The English Bible - a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.
– Thomas Babington 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 Babington Macaulay
Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay
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 Babington Macaulay
American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society.
– Thomas Babington Macaulay