Quote

Logicians may reason about abstractions. But the great mass of men must have images. The strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be explained on no other principle.

Thomas B. Macaulay

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thomas B. Macaulay
Nations
Tendency
Age
Ages
Logicians
Strong
Tendencies
Abstractions
May
Images
Idolatry
Reason
Principle
Multitude
Must
Atheism
Explained
Great
Mass
Multitudes
Men
Principles
Abstraction

More quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay

Image
A government cannot be wrong in punishing fraud or force, but it is almost certain to be wrong if, abandoning its legitimate function, it tells private individuals that it knows their business better than they know it themselves.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Grief, which disposes gentle natures to retirement, to inaction, and to meditation, only makes restless spirits more restless.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
In truth it may be laid down as an almost universal rule that good poets are bad critics.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
The temple of silence and reconciliation.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
No man who is correctly informed as to the past will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
The good-humor of a man elated with success often displays itself towards enemies.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Both in individuals and in masses violent excitement is always followed by remission, and often by reaction. We are all inclined to depreciate whatever we have overpraised, and, on the other hand, to show undue indulgence where we have shown undue rigor.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
This is the highest miracle of genius, that things which are not should be as though they were, that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
With respect to the doctrine of a future life, a North American Indian knows just as much as any ancient or modern philosopher.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Our estimate of a character always depends much on the manner in which that character affects our own interests and passions.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Ambrose Phillips . . . who had the honor of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name, Namby Pamby.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Genius is subject to the same laws which regulate the production of cotton and molasses.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
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.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Western literature has been more influenced by the Bible than any other book.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
[I can] scarcely write upon mathematics or mathematicians. Oh for words to express my abomination of the science.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
We must succumb to the general influence of the times. No man can be of the tenth century, if he would be must be a man of the nineteenth century.
Thomas B. Macaulay