Thomas Babington Macaulay Quotes & Sayings

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Nothing except the mint can make money without advertising.”

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

“I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read.”

“And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?”

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

“Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.”