Thomas Babington (or Babbington) Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (October 25 , 1800 - December 28 , 1859 ) was a nineteenth century British poet, historian and Whig politician.

• "His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him to run, though not to soar."

• "Thus then stands the case: it is good that authors should be remunerated and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly, yet monopoly is an evil for the sake of the good. We must submit to the evil, but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good."

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

• "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."

• "Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the 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."

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