Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in i…

Thomas B. Macaulay
64 citations
Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in its rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical.
Humanity Politics
20

More Author Quotes

He was a rake among scholars, and a scholar among rakes.
He had done that which could never be forgiven; he was in the grasp of one who never forgave.
None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as far as we can perceive, much security for his being wiser than a … ▶
She thoroughly understands what no other Church has ever understood, how to deal with enthusiasts.
It has often been found that profuse expenditures, heavy taxation, absurd commercial restrictions, corrupt tribunals, disastrous wars, seditions, persecutions, conflagrations, inundation, have not be … ▶

More Author Quotes

Most Cited Authors

The Best Quotes

Most Liked Authors

Curated Author Quotes