Quotes by Thomas Babington Macaulay

“The measure of a mans real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.”

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!

Then none was for a party;Then all were for the state;Then the great man helped the poor,And the poor man loved the great;Then lands were fairly proportioned;Then spoils were fairly sold;The Romans were like brothersIn the brave days of old.

Thus spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate. To all men upon this Earth, death cometh soon or late. And what better way to die, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of ones fathers, and the temples of ones G/Ds? For the tender mother, who dandled him to rest. And for the wife, who nurses his baby at her breast. And for the holy maidens, who feed the eternal flame. To save them from false sextus, that wrought the deed of shame. Lay down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may. I, with two more at either side, shall hold the foe in play. In Yon straight path a thousand may well be stop by three. Now who will stand on either hand and hold the bridge with me?

Pour, varlet, pour the waterThe water steaming hot!A spoonful for each man of usAnother for the pot!

It seems that the creative faculty and the critical faculty cannot exist together in their highest perfection.

His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run though not to soar.

The highest intellects like the tops of mountains are the first to catch and to reflect the dawn.

The object of oratory alone is not truth but persuasion.

American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society.

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

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

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 object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.

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.

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

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

As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.