244 Quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay

We do not think it necessary to prove that a quack medicine is poison; let the vender prove it to be sanative.

Ambrose Phillips . . . who had the honor of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name, Namby Pamby.

The good-humor of a man elated with success often displays itself towards enemies.

How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old.

To be a really good historian is perhaps the rarest of intellectual distinctions.

No man in the world acts up to his own standard of right.

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner; yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis.

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

Grief, which disposes gentle natures to retirement, to inaction, and to meditation, only makes restless spirits more restless.