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...
art imagination grace
In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals.
fate kismet accidents
The Orientals have another word for accident; it is "kismet,"--fate.
age human-nature found
In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues.
country men may
No particular man is necessary to the state. We may depend on it that, if we provide the country with popular institutions, those institutions will provide it with great men.
book heart men
The hearts of men are their books; events are their tutors; great actions are their eloquence.
strong military government
I have not the smallest doubt that, if we had a purely democratic government here, the effect would be the same. Either the poor would plunder the rich, and civilisation would perish; or order and property would be saved by a strong military government, and liberty would perish.
freedom government order
As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom.
benevolence politeness wells
Politeness has been well defined as benevolence in small things.
money law would-be
Even the law of gravitation would be brought into dispute were there a pecuniary interest involved.
equal
Shakespeare has had neither equal nor second.
firsts biographers
Boswell is the first of biographers.
spoons diners eating
Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons.
mean poetry understanding
The merit of poetry, in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words, but circuitously by means of imaginative associations, which serve as its conductors.
civilization poetry decline
As civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines.