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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.

Thomas B. Macaulay

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Thomas B. Macaulay
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Those who seem to load the public taste are, in general, merely outrunning it in the direction which it is spontaneously pursuing.
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The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman.
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Our judgment ripens our imagination decays. We cannot at once enjoy the flowers of the Spring of life and the fruits of its Autumn.
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The English doctrine that all power is a trust for the public good.
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It may be laid as an universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less.
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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.
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He [Charles II] was utterly without ambition. He detested business, and would sooner have abdicated his crown than have undergone the trouble of really directing the administration.
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Those who compare the age in which their lot has fallen with a golden age which exists only in imagination, may talk of degeneracy and decay but no man who is correctly informed as to the past, will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the present.
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In the modern languages there was not, six hundred years ago, a single volume which is now read. The library of our profound scholar must have consisted entirely of Latin books.
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She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.
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