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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.

— Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

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More quotes by Thomas Babington Macaulay

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

Southey's Colloquies on Society', The Edinburgh Review (1830)

The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.

I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.

Perhaps no person can be a poet, or even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind.

Milton', The Edinburgh Review (1825)

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

History of England (1849)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Babington Macaulay (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.