Remarks by Thomas Babington Macaulay

“The true source of the power of demagogues is the obstinacy of rulers and a liberal Government makes a conservative people.”

Linking popular agitation to the refusal of rulers to concede reform · Speech in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill, 5 July 1831

“Reform, that you may preserve.”

The central slogan of his argument for timely parliamentary reform · Speech in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill, 2 March 1831

“At last I have attained true glory. As I walked through Fleet Street the day before yesterday, I saw a copy of Hume at a bookseller's window with the following label: Only 2l. 2s. Hume's History of England in eight volumes, highly valuable as an introduction to Macaulay.”

Recording with wry satisfaction the commercial success of his History · Journal entry, 5 February 1849

“I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.”

Expressing a controversial comparative judgment on Indian and European learning · Minute on Indian Education, 2 February 1835

“He [Richard Steele] was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.”

A compact characterisation of Steele's dual character · Essay, The Life and Writings of Addison (1843)

“Our liberty is neither Greek nor Roman; but essentially English. It has a character of its own — a character which has taken a tinge from the sentiments of the chivalrous ages, and which accords with the peculiarities of our manners and of our insular situation.”

Asserting the distinctive nature of English constitutional liberty · Essay, History (1828)

“The object of oratory alone is not truth, but persuasion.”

Distinguishing the practical aim of public speaking from pure inquiry · Essay, On the Athenian Orators (1824)

“Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered have prevented a single foolish action.”

Observing the limited practical effect of even the wisest maxims · Essay, Machiavelli (1827)

“In Plato's opinion, man was made for philosophy; in Bacon's opinion, philosophy was made for man.”

Contrasting two great views of the purpose of knowledge · Essay, Lord Bacon (1837)

“Copyright is monopoly, and produces all the effects which the general voice of mankind attributes to monopoly. Monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil; but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.”

Balancing the need to reward authors against the public interest · Speech on the Copyright Bill, House of Commons, 5 February 1841

“Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.”

A concise critique of the American Constitution's lack of restraining forces · Letter to H. S. Randall, 23 May 1857

“It is odd that the last twenty-five years which have witnessed the greatest progress ever made in physical science should have produced hardly a volume that will be remembered in 1900.”

Noting the disparity between scientific advance and literary achievement · Journal entry, 9 March 1850

“But Coraggio — and think of A.D. 2850. Where will your Carlyles and Emersons be then? But Herodotus will still be read with delight. We must do our best to be read too.”

Reflecting on the lasting power of great historical writing · Journal entry, 12 January 1850

“A great writer is the friend and benefactor of his readers.”

Expressing the personal bond between author and audience · Essay or critical writing

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

Affirming the value of open debate in reaching sound conclusions · Essay or speech, commonly attributed

“The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature.”

Suggesting that a touch of exaggeration can heighten truth in representation · Essay or critical remark, commonly attributed

“He had a wonderful talent for packing thought close, and rendering it portable.”

Praising the compression and clarity of a great thinker's style · Essay, on Francis Bacon or related criticism

“Out of his surname they have coined an epithet for a knave, and out of his Christian name a synonym for the Devil.”

Commenting on the lasting notoriety attached to Machiavelli's name · Essay, Machiavelli (1827)

“Temple was a man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters amongst men of the world.”

Characterising a statesman who moved easily between public life and scholarship · Essay, Sir William Temple (1838)

“The English Bible — a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.”

Praising the literary greatness of the King James Bible · Essay, John Dryden (1828)

“The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.”

A sharp observation on the moral severity of Puritan attitudes · History of England, Volume I (1849)

“I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having descended below the dignity of history if I can succeed in placing before the English of the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their ancestors.”

Defending a broad, social approach to historical writing · History of England, Volume I, Chapter 1 (1849)

“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!”

Celebrating the companionship and imaginative freedom of books · Letter to Thomas Flower Ellis, 1835

“Books are becoming everything to me. If I had at this moment any choice in life, I would bury myself in one of those immense libraries and never pass a waking hour without a book before me.”

Expressing a lifelong passion for reading as the highest form of happiness · Letter to his sister, around 1832

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