212 Quotes by Thomas Babington Macaulay

A kind of semi-Solomon, half-knowing everything, from the cedar to the hyssop.

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.

A Grecian history, perfectly written should be a complete record of the rise and progress of poetry, philosophy, and the arts.

Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration which deceives for the moment both themselves and their auditors.

In truth it may be laid down as an almost universal rule that good poets are bad critics.

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

Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another.

Byron owed the vast influence which he exercised over his contemporaries at least as much to his gloomy egotism as to the real power of his poetry.

Power, safely defied, touches its downfall.