Those who have read history with discrimination know the fallacy of those panegyrics and invectives which represent individuals as effecting great moral and intellectual revolutions, subverting established systems, and imprinting a new character on their age. The difference between one man and another is by no means so great as the superstitious crowd suppose.
Thomas B. MacaulayMany politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.
Thomas B. MacaulayGenius is subject to the same laws which regulate the production of cotton and molasses.
Thomas B. MacaulayI have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.
Thomas B. MacaulayWar is never lenient but where it is wanton; where men are compelled to fight in self-defence, they must hate and avenge. This may be bad, but it is human nature; it is the clay as it came from the hands of the Potter.
Thomas B. Macaulay