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Quote#Politics & Power

I say that where the public morality is concerned it may be the duty…

Quote byThomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay · 1800–1859

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Speech in the House of Commons in favour of John Fielden's bill for limiting the labour of young persons in factories to ten hours a day (22 May 1846), quoted in Speeches of the Right Honourable T. B. Macaulay, M.P. (1854), p. 442.

English (original)

I say that where the public morality is concerned it may be the duty of the State to interfere with the contracts of individuals... It must then, I think, be admitted that, where health is concerned, and where morality is concerned, the State is justified in interfering with the contracts of individuals.

— Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

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