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Quote by Thomas B. Macaulay

“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.”

Quote by Thomas B. Macaulay

Author

Thomas B. Macaulay

Thomas B. Macaulay, born on October 25, 1800, in Ireland, and died on December 28, 1859, in the United Kingdom, was a prominent political figure in the Victorian era. He served as the Secretary at War, playing a significant role in the British government. more

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“The study of the properties of numbers, Plato tells us, habituates the mind to the contemplation of pure truth, and raises us above the material universe. He would have his disciples apply themselves to this study, not that they may be able to buy or sell, not that they may qualify themselves to be shopkeepers or travelling merchants, but that they may learn to withdraw their minds from the ever-shifting spectacle of this visible and tangible world, and to fix them on the immutable essences of things.”

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“Every age and every nation has certain characteristic vices, which prevail almost universally, which scarcely any person scruples to avow, and which even rigid moralists but faintly censure. Succeeding generations change the fashion of their morals with the fashion of their hats and their coaches; take some other kind of wickedness under their patronage, and wonder at the depravity of their ancestors.”

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“What society wants is a new motive, not a new cant.”

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“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.”

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“Even Holland and Spain have been positively, though not relatively, advancing.”

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