In truth it may be laid down as an almost universal rule that good poets are bad critics. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
A Grecian history, perfectly written should be a complete record of the rise and progress of poetry, philosophy, and the arts. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
It is certain that satirical poems were common at Rome from a very early period. The rustics, who lived at a distance… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
Satire is, indeed, the only sort of composition in which the Latin poets whose works have come down to us were not… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
By poetry we mean the art of employing of words in such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination;… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
From the poetry of Lord Byron they drew a system of ethics compounded of misanthropy and voluptuousness,-a system in which the two… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
Byron owed the vast influence which he exercised over his contemporaries at least as much to his gloomy egotism as to the… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
Generalization is necessary to the advancement of knowledge; but particularly is indispensable to the creations of the imagination. In proportion as men… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
The passages in which Milton has alluded to his own circumstances are perhaps read more frequently, and with more interest, than any… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
The merit of poetry, in its wildest forms, still consists in its truth-truth conveyed to the understanding, not directly by the words,… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
He who, in an enlightened and literary society, aspires to be a great poet, must first become a little child. He must… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
We hardly know an instance of the strength and weakness of human nature so striking and so grotesque as the character of… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
The Life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets.… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
Re: Robert Montgomery's Poems His writing bears the same relation to poetry which a Turkey carpet bears to a picture. There are… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share Image
We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
Our estimate of a character always depends much on the manner in which that character affects our own interests and passions. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
Re: Robert Montgomery's Poems His writing bears the same relation to poetry which a Turkey carpet bears to a picture. There are colours in… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
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… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
The most beautiful object in the world, it will be allowed, is a beautiful woman. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
The passages in which Milton has alluded to his own circumstances are perhaps read more frequently, and with more interest, than any other lines… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
Oh, wherefore come ye forth in triumph from the north, With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red? And wherefore doth… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected in the Sanskrit language is less valuable… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
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 Copy Share
In the infancy of civilization, when our island was as savage as New Guinea, when letters and arts were still unknown to Athens, when… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
In truth it may be laid down as an almost universal rule that good poets are bad critics. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
He had a head which statuaries loved to copy, and a foot the deformity of which the beggars in the streets mimicked. — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
The Spartan, smiting and spurning the wretched Helot, moves our disgust. But the same Spartan, calmly dressing his hair, and uttering his concise jests,… — Thomas B. Macaulay Copy Share
