212 Quotes by Thomas Babington Macaulay

Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may talk of degeneracy and decay; but no man who is correctly informed as to the past, will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.

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.

Sense can support herself handsomely in most countries on some eighteen pence a day; but for fantasy, planets and solar systems, will not suffice.

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.

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

History distinguishes what is accidental and transitory in human nature from what is essential and immutable.

The English doctrine that all power is a trust for the public good.

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

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.