Thomas B. Macaulay quotes

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

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it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then be withdrawn, to make room for the forthcoming novelties.

A good constitution is infinitely better than the best despot.

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?

Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.

He had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.

He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.

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.

Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.

The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.

The effect of violent dislike between groups has always created an indifference to the welfare and honor of the state.

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.

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