We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.
Interpretation
A government should be evaluated based on its overall behavior and policies, rather than isolated positive events.
This quote by Thomas B. Macaulay suggests that when assessing a government's effectiveness and character, one should look at its prevailing trends and decisions rather than being misled by fortunate occurrences. Happy accidents might create a temporary impression of success, but a more holistic view reveals the true nature of governance.
In practice
In a speech on civic engagement, you can quote Macaulay to stress the importance of critically evaluating governmental policies rather than being swayed by isolated positive news.
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 any of his neighbours. The chance of his being wiser than all his neighbours together is still smaller.
Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
I wish I was as sure of anything as he is of everything.
To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked.
Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.
What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!
Attempts are being made to turn Pakistan into a security state. If they succeed they should better rename it 'ISIstan.'
For what were all these country patriots born? To hunt, and vote, and raise the price of corn?
The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.
This political climate today reminds me of what my father must have gone through in 1942, when the winds of war and fires of hate were surrounding him. We have a candidate for the presidency of the United States, Donald Trump, using the same rhetoric that my father must have heard from elected officials.
The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers.
The U.N. bureaucracy has grown to elephantine proportions. Now that the Cold War is over, we are asking that elephant to do gymnastics.
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