Skip to content

There is surely no contradiction in saying that a certain section of the community may be quite competent to protect the persons and property of the rest, yet quite unfit to direct our opinions, or to superintend our private habits.

— Thomas Babington Macaulay Southey's Colloquies on Society', The Edinburgh Review (1830)

Another quote →

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)

All Thomas Babington Macaulay quotes →

Attribution

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.