Thomas B. Macaulay Professions : Former Secretary at WarBorn : October 25, 1800Died : December 28, 1859 Browse All Authors Top 238 quotes by 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 democracies-havefreedomcivilization 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 librarychoicesbook 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 ableblessingbook To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. Thomas B. Macaulay nomenclatureclasscountry We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality. Thomas B. Macaulay ridiculousmoralityfit 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 B. Macaulay navygentlemanarmy The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm. Thomas B. Macaulay estatesgalleryrealms He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes. Thomas B. Macaulay rakesscholar A single breaker may recede; but the tide is evidently coming in. Thomas B. Macaulay tidytidesmay Nothing is so useless as a general maxim. Thomas B. Macaulay maximsuseless The Spartan, smiting and spurning the wretched Helot, moves our disgust. But the same Spartan, calmly dressing his hair, and uttering his concise jests, on what the well knows to be his last day, in the pass of Thermopylae, is not to be contemplated without admiration. Thomas B. Macaulay hairhistorymoving A kind of semi-Solomon, half-knowing everything, from the cedar to the hyssop. Thomas B. Macaulay cedarsknowing-everythingknowledge But thou, through good and evil, praise and blame, Thomas B. Macaulay faithfulevillife A system in which the two great commandments are to hate your neighbor and to love your neighbor's wife. Thomas B. Macaulay hatelovetwo To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked. Thomas B. Macaulay diversityjusticemen It may be laid as an universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less. Thomas B. Macaulay libertygovernmentmay I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think. Thomas B. Macaulay stupidfunnythinking 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 stupidlawson 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 flowerspringlife The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Thomas B. Macaulay painhistoryreligion
