Thomas B. Macaulay History Quotations

The Spartan, smiting and spurning the wretched Helot, moves our disgust. But the same Spartan, calmly dressing his hair, and uttering his concise jests, on what the well knows to be his last day, in the pass of Thermopylae, is not to be contemplated without admiration.

Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them, like gold in the ore, that the mass derives its whole value; and the precious particles are generally combined with the baser in such a manner that the separation is a task of the utmost difficulty.

A Grecian history, perfectly written should be a complete record of the rise and progress of poetry, philosophy, and the arts.

The highest eulogy which can be pronounced on the Revolution of 1688 is this that this was our last Revolution.

He had done that which could never be forgiven; he was in the grasp of one who never forgave.

The best portraits are perhaps those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature; and we are not certain that the best histories are not those in which a little of the exaggeration of fictitious narrative is judiciously employed. Something is lost in accuracy; but much is gained in effect. The fainter lines are neglected; but the great characteristic features are imprinted on the mind forever.

History begins in novel and ends in essay.

A history in which every particular incident may be true may on the whole be false.