Thomas B. Macaulay
Thomas B. Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PCwas a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer; his books on British history have been hailed as literary masterpieces. He was a member of the Babington family by virtue of his aunt's marriage to Thomas Babington...
drama real character
The real object of the drama is the exhibition of human character.
imagination advancement creation
Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularity is indispensable to the creations of the imagination.
pain religion bears
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
poetry age genius
We hold that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem produced in a civilized age.
dream men progress
If any person had told the Parliament which met in terror and perplexity after the crash of 1720 that in 1830 the wealth of England would surpass all their wildest dreams, that the annual revenue would equal the principal of that debt which they considered an intolerable burden, that for one man of
philosophy men should
To sum up the whole, we should say that the aim of the Platonic philosophy was to exalt man into a god.
evil produce cures
There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom.
ignorance learning half
Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance.
historical essentials human-nature
History distinguishes what is accidental and transitory in human nature from what is essential and immutable.
lasts tables produce
I shall not be satisfied unless I produce something which shall for a few days supersede the last fashionable novel on the tables of young ladies.
dust two drawing
A few more days, and this essay will follow the Defensio Populi to the dust and silence of the upper shelf... For a month or two it will occupy a few minutes of chat in every drawing-room, and a few columns in every magazine; and it will then be withdrawn, to make room for the forthcoming novelties.
wise men sage
Every man who has seen the world knows that nothing is so useless as a general maxim.... If, like those of Rochefoucault, it be sparkling and whimsical, it may make an excellent motto for an essay. But few, indeed, of the many wise apophthegms which have been uttered from the time of the Seven Sages of Greece to that of Poor Richard have prevented a single foolish action.
night men hypocrisy
A man who should act, for one day, on the supposition that all the people about him were influenced by the religion which they professed would find himself ruined by night.
religion society church
A church is disaffected when it is persecuted, quiet when it is tolerated, and actively loyal when it is favored and cherished.