Thomas B. Macaulay Self Quotations

A perfect historian must possess an imagination sufficiently powerful to make his narrative affecting and picturesque; yet he must control it so absolutely as to content himself with the materials which he finds, and to refrain from supplying deficiencies by additions of his own. He must be a profound and ingenious reasoner; yet he must possess sufficient self-command to abstain from casting his facts in the mould of his hypothesis.

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.

The perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion of which men seem incapable, but which is sometimes found in women.

Complete self-devotion is woman's part.

In perseverance, in self command, in forethought, in all virtues which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been surpassed.