| Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. | | | |
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| | | NUMBER: | 781 |
| AUTHOR: | Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–59) |
| QUOTATION: | The business of government is not directly to make the people rich, but to protect them in making themselves rich; and a government which attempts more than this is precisely the government which is likely to perform less. Governments do not and cannot support the people. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY, speech on parliamentary reform, March 2, 1831.—The Complete Writings of Lord Macaulay, vol. 17, p. 39 (1900). |
| SUBJECTS: | Government—purpose of |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia | | |
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