Famous Quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay (31 Quotations)

The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Persuasion]

The puritan hated bear baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Puritans]

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 – [Christians and Christianity]

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 – [Empire]

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 – [Army and Navy]

Time advances: facts accumulate; doubts arise. Faint glimpses of truth begin to appear, and shine more and more unto the perfect day. The highest intellects, like the tops of mountains, are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn. They are bright, while the level below is still in darkness. But soon the light, which at first illuminated only the loftiest eminences, descends on the plain, and penetrates to the deepest valley. First come hints, then fragments of systems, then defective systems, then complete and harmonious systems. The sound opinion, held for a time by one bold speculator, becomes the opinion of a small minority, of a strong minority, of a majority of mankind. Thus, the great progress goes on.

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Progress]

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 – [Persecution]

Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Reform]

We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Morality]

We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Government]

Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.

Thomas B. Macaulay – [Constitutions]