Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
What proposition is there respecting human nature which is absolutely and universally true? We know of only one,--and that is not only true, but identical,--that men always act from self-interest.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
Thomas B. Macaulay
Nature
Respecting
Human
Proposition
Humans
Propositions
Self
Identical
Always
Absolutely
Men
Humanity
Interest
True
Universally
More quotes by Thomas B. Macaulay
The great cause of revolutions is this, that while nations move onward, constitutions stand still.
Thomas B. Macaulay
This is the best book ever written by any man on the wrong side of a question of which he is profoundly ignorant.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!
Thomas B. Macaulay
Every sect clamors for toleration when it is down.
Thomas B. Macaulay
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
The temple of silence and reconciliation.
Thomas B. Macaulay
We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.
Thomas B. Macaulay
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
Knowledge advances by steps, and not by leaps.
Thomas B. Macaulay
The ascendency of the sacerdotal order was long the ascendency which naturally and properly belonged to intellectual superiority.
Thomas B. Macaulay
Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear.
Thomas B. Macaulay
He had done that which could never be forgiven he was in the grasp of one who never forgave.
Thomas B. Macaulay
In every age the vilest specimens of human nature are to be found among demagogues.
Thomas B. Macaulay
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
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
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
Highest among those who have exhibited human nature by means of dialogue stands Shakespeare. His variety is like the variety of nature,--endless diversity, scarcely any monstrosity.
Thomas B. Macaulay
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
The chief-justice was rich, quiet, and infamous.
Thomas B. Macaulay
It may be laid as an universal rule that a government which attempts more than it ought will perform less.
Thomas B. Macaulay