Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thomas B. Macaulay
Shows
Individuals
Indulgence
Hands
Violent
Masses
Always
Mass
Shown
Hand
Reaction
Depreciate
Whatever
Followed
Undue
Show
Excitement
Remission
Individual
Reactions
Rigor
Often
Extremes
Inclined

More quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay

Image
Oh, wherefore come ye forth in triumph from the north, With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red? And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout? And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread?
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
The sweeter sound of woman's praise.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
A man who should act, for one day, on the supposition that all the people about him were influenced by the religion which they professed would find himself ruined by night.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Parent of sweetest sounds, yet mute forever.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
There is no country in Europe which is so easy to over-run as Spain there is no country which it is more difficult to conquer.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action it inspires no enthusiasm it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Man is so inconsistent a creature that it is impossible to reason from his beliefs to his conduct, or from one part of his belief to another.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
If anybody would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces, and gardens and fine dinners, and wine, and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I would not read books, I would not be a king.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
Byron owed the vast influence which he exercised over his contemporaries at least as much to his gloomy egotism as to the real power of his poetry.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
The English doctrine that all power is a trust for the public good.
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
In order that he might rob a neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America.
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
Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear O'er English dust. A broken heart lies here.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Image
At present, the novels which we owe to English ladies form no small part of the literary glory of our country. No class of works is more honorably distinguished for fine observation, by grace, by delicate wit, by pure moral feeling.
Thomas B. Macaulay