George Bancroft Quotes

Where the people possess no authority, their rights obtain no respect.

Institutions may crumble and governments fall, but it is only that they may renew a better youth, and mount upwards like the eagle.

The public is wiser than the wisest critic.

Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God himself, were it possible.

The measure of progress of civilization is the progress of the people.

Sedition is bred in the lap of luxury and its chosen emissaries are the beggared spendthrift and the impoverished libertine.

Avarice is the vice of declining years.

By common consent gray hairs are a crown of glory; the only object of respect that can never excite envy.

Ennui is the desire of activity without the fit means of gratifying the desire.

Conscience is the mirror of our souls, which represents the errors of our lives in their full shape.

It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king.

I find the name of Jesus Christ written on the top of every page of modern history.

The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain; for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break.

Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world.

In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person.

Libraries collect the works of genius of every language and every age.

The fears of one class of men are not the measure of the rights of another.

Not in vain has Lincoln lived, for he has helped to make this republic an example of justice, with no caste but the caste of humanity.

Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement.

If reason is a universal faculty, the decision of the common mind is the nearest criterion of truth.

If hours did not hang heavy, what would become of scandal?