110+ Thomas B. Macaulay Quotes On Slavery, Education And Constitution

Thomas B. Macaulay was an English historian and Whig politician. He is best known for his history of England, which was published in five volumes between 1848 and 1861. His writings on British history have been highly influential and have often been praised for their literary quality. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay on slavery, education, leadership.

Top 10 Thomas B. Macaulay Quotes

1. The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.
2. To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god.
3. Finesse is the best adaptation of means to circumstances.
4. It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it. One who trusts nobody will not trust sycophants. One who does not value real glory will not value its counterfeit.
5. Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.
6. The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
7. Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.
8. The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.
9. I have seen the hippopotamus, both asleep and awake; and I can assure you that, awake or asleep, he is the ugliest of the works of God.
10. The conformation of his mind was such that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever was great seemed to him little.

Thomas B. Macaulay Short Quotes

• A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false.
• The temple of silence and reconciliation.
• Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.
• Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.
• It is possible to be below flattery as well as above it.
• Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things.
• Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.
• Reform, that we may preserve.
• The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.
• I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history.

Thomas B. Macaulay Quotes About Constitution

The great cause of revolutions is this, that while nations move onward, constitutions stand still. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Thomas B. Macaulay Quotes About Love

From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness,-a system in which the two great commandments were to hate your neighbour and to love your neighbour's wife. — Thomas B. Macaulay

He had a head which statuaries loved to copy, and a foot the deformity of which the beggars in the streets mimicked. — Thomas B. Macaulay

That wonderful book, while it obtains admiration from the most fastidious critics, is loved by those who are too simple to admire it. — Thomas B. Macaulay

But thou, through good and evil, praise and blame, Wilt not thou love me for myself alone? Yes, thou wilt love me with exceeding love, And I will tenfold all that love repay; Still smiling, though the tender may reprove, Still faithful, though the trusted may betray. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Then none was for a party; Than all were for the state; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great: Then lands were fairly portioned; Then spoils were fairly sold: The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A system in which the two great commandments are to hate your neighbor and to love your neighbor's wife. — Thomas B. Macaulay

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

Thomas B. Macaulay Quotes About People

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 B. Macaulay

The impenetrable stupidity of Prince George (son-in-law of James II) served his turn. It was his habit, when any news was told him, to exclaim, "Est il possible?"-"Is it possible?" — Thomas B. Macaulay

A man who should act, for one day, on the supposition that all the people about him were influenced by the religion which they professed would find himself ruined by night. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves? — Thomas B. Macaulay

I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A beggarly people, A church and no steeple. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

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

That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy. — Thomas B. Macaulay

It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Thomas B. Macaulay Famous Quotes And Sayings

It is certain that satirical poems were common at Rome from a very early period. The rustics, who lived at a distance from the seat of government, and took little part in the strife of factions, gave vent to their petty local animosities in coarse Fescennine verse. — Thomas B. 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 B. Macaulay

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

I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if I can succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There was, it is said, a criminal in Italy who was suffered to make his choice between Guicciardini and the galleys. He chose the history. But the war of Pisa was too much for him; he changed his mind, and went to the oars. — Thomas B. Macaulay

This is the highest miracle of genius, that things which are not should be as though they were, that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularity is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

We hold that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem produced in a civilized age. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Queen Mary had a way of interrupting tattle about elopements, duels, and play debts, by asking the tattlers, very quietly yet significantly, whether they had ever read her favorite sermon--Dr. Tillotson on Evil Speaking. — Thomas B. Macaulay

We must judge of a form of government by it's general tendency, not by happy accidents — Thomas B. Macaulay

As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines. — Thomas B. Macaulay

In that temple of silence and reconciliation where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in the great Abbey which has during many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The reluctant obedience of distant provinces generally costs more than it - The Territory is worth. Empires which branch out widely are often more flourishing for a little timely pruning. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The English doctrine that all power is a trust for the public good. — Thomas B. Macaulay

None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as far as we can perceive, much security for his being wiser than any of his neighbours. The chance of his being wiser than all his neighbours together is still smaller. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may talk of degeneracy and decay; but 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

Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Cut off my head, and singular I am, Cut off my tail, and plural I appear; Although my middle's left, there's nothing there! What is my head cut off? A sounding sea; What is my tail cut off? A rushing river; And in their mingling depths I fearless play, Parent of sweetest sounds, yet mute forever. — Thomas B. 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 B. Macaulay

In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Parent of sweetest sounds, yet mute forever. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The whole history of Christianity proves that she has little indeed to fear from persecution as a foe, but much to fear from persecution as an ally. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

The real object of the drama is the exhibition of human character. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Satire is, indeed, the only sort of composition in which the Latin poets whose works have come down to us were not mere imitators of foreign models; and it is therefore the sort of composition in which they have never been excelled. — Thomas B. Macaulay

All the walks of literature are infested with mendicants for fame, who attempt to excite our interest by exhibiting all the distortions of their intellects and stripping the covering from all the putrid sores of their feelings. — Thomas B. Macaulay

If anybody would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces, and gardens and fine dinners, and wine, and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I would not read books, I would not be a king. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

Even the law of gravitation would be brought into dispute were there a pecuniary interest involved. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

Was none who would be foremost To lead such dire attack; But those behind cried "Forward!" And those before cried "Back! — Thomas B. Macaulay

To be a really good historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual distinctions. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Scotland by no means escaped the fate ordained for every country which is connected, but not incorporated, with another country of greater resources. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two greatest faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasonings. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

Every age and every nation has certain characteristic vices, which prevail almost universally, which scarcely any person scruples to avow, and which even rigid moralists but faintly censure. Succeeding generations change the fashion of their morals with the fashion of their hats and their coaches; take some other kind of wickedness under their patronage, and wonder at the depravity of their ancestors. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative. — Thomas B. Macaulay

As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

With the dead there is no rivalry, with the dead there is no change. — Thomas B. Macaulay

In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads. — Thomas B. Macaulay

More sinners are cursed at not because we despise their sins but because we envy their success at sinning. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The sweeter sound of woman's praise. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality, in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart, in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect, in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning, in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

A few more years will destroy whatever yet remains of that magical potency which once belonged to the name of Byron. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The good-humor of a man elated with success often displays itself towards enemies. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A page digested is better than a volume hurriedly read. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The end of government is the happiness of the people. — Thomas B. Macaulay

A kind of semi-Solomon, half-knowing everything, from the cedar to the hyssop. — Thomas B. Macaulay

An acre in Middlesex is better than a principality in Utopia. — Thomas B. Macaulay

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

The chief-justice was rich, quiet, and infamous. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Thus, then, stands the case. It is good, that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good. — Thomas B. Macaulay

He [Charles II] was utterly without ambition. He detested business, and would sooner have abdicated his crown than have undergone the trouble of really directing the administration. — Thomas B. Macaulay

The Church is the handmaid of tyranny and the steady enemy of liberty. — Thomas B. Macaulay

There are countries in which it would be as absurd to establish popular governments as to abolish all the restraints in a school or to unite all the strait-waistcoats in a madhouse. — Thomas B. Macaulay

By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination; the art of doing by means of words, what the painter does by means of colors. — Thomas B. Macaulay

In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals. — Thomas B. Macaulay

I am always nearest to myself," says the Latin proverb. — Thomas B. Macaulay

To carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. When an extreme case calls for that remedy which is in its own nature most violent, and which, in such cases, is a remedy only because it is violent, it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid war can do nothing which negotiation or submission will do better: and to act on any other principle is, not to save blood and money, but to squander them. — Thomas B. Macaulay

Life Lessons by Thomas B. Macaulay

1. Thomas B. Macaulay taught that hard work and dedication can lead to great success. He believed that knowledge was the key to success and that one should strive to be well-informed.
2. He also believed that it was important to be open-minded and to be willing to challenge one's own beliefs. He encouraged people to look at all sides of an issue before making a decision.
3. Finally, Macaulay stressed the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions and making the best of any situation. He believed that everyone should strive to make the world a better place.