“Nine-tenths the calamities of the human race are due to the union of high intelligence with low desires.”

— Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

"Lord Bacon", (1837) in Essays 2:183
Attributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nine-tenths the calamities of the human race are due to the union of high intelligence with low desires." by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay?

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay 101

British historian and Whig politician 1800–1859

Related quotes

“Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine- tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Lothair (1870), Ch. 29.

“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Section 2, paragraph 25.
The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)

“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

“At any given time, ninety-nine-point-nine-five per cent of the human race are a confounded nuisance”

Tom Holt book Flying Dutch

Flying Dutch (1991)

“Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals.”

T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935) British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat

The Evolution of A Revolt (1920)
Context: Nine-tenths of tactics are certain, and taught in books: but the irrational tenth is like the kingfisher flashing across the pool, and that is the test of generals. It can only be ensured by instinct, sharpened by thought practicing the stroke so often that at the crisis it is as natural as a reflex.

“In the last analysis, Russia will do nine-tenths of the job of defeating Germany.”

Ernest King (1878–1956) United States Navy admiral, Chief of Naval Operations

Prediction made by King when speaking to reporters in Alexandria, Virginia on 30 November 1942. As quoted by Thomas B. Buell in his book Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King (1980), p. 265
1940s