Genius is subject to the same laws which regulate the production of cotton and molasses. Thomas B. Macaulay More Quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay More Quotes From Thomas B. Macaulay Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance. Thomas B. Macaulay learningignorancehalf Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In proportion as men know more and think more they look less at individuals and more at classes. They therefore make better theories and worse poems. Thomas B. Macaulay classmenthinking 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 viewsmenpast Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle. Thomas B. Macaulay atheismstrongmen Everybody's business is nobody's business. Thomas B. Macaulay business To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god. Thomas B. Macaulay shouldmenphilosophy There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom. Thomas B. Macaulay curesproduceevil I shall not be satisfied unless I produce something which shall for a few days supersede the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies. Thomas B. Macaulay producelaststables 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 dignitysucceedbears 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it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then be withdrawn, to make room for the forthcoming novelties.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 drawingdusttwo 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 hypocrisymennight 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 societychurchreligion If any person had told the Parliament which met in terror and perplexity after the crash of 1720 that in 1830 the wealth of England would surpass all their wildest dreams, that the annual revenue would equal the principal of that debt which they considered an intolerable burden, that for one man of Thomas B. Macaulay progressdreammen In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man. Thomas B. Macaulay platophilosophyscience Reform, that we may preserve. Thomas B. Macaulay reformationreformmay I have been apt to think that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or a bad peace. Thomas B. Macaulay The maxim that people should not have a right till they are ready to exercise it properly, 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
