Thomas Babington Macaulay

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! ↗

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#reading #love

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

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#freely #likely #men #never #question

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. ↗

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#broken #drink #eat #galling #government

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? ↗

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#decide #governed #opinion #ought #say

American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society. ↗

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#authority #because #democracy #failure #hands

Persecution produced its natural effect on them. It found them a sect; it made them a faction. ↗

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#faction #found #made #natural #persecution

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it. ↗

— Thomas Babington Macaulay

#highest #possess #power #proof #virtue