George Bancroft Quotations

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

The prejudices of ignorance are more easily removed than the prejudices of interest; the first are all blindly adopted, the second willfully preferred.

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

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

The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force.

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

Beauty is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Like truth and justice it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law it is a companion of the soul.

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

The public is wiser than the wisest critic.

Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement; and if a story is told of more than common interest, ennui is sure to have its joy in adding embellishments. If hours did not hang heavy, what would become of scandal?

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

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority.

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

We have called this our Decade of Gibbons. We expected to win this ourselves. We are a young team, but when you win something for 10 straight years, you don't want that loss on your watch.

It was tough wrestling Alex because we do train together in the summer. I hope there are no hard feelings, but when we get on the mat we have to put our friendship behind.

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

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.

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

In 1688 England contracted to the Netherlands the highest debt that one nation can owe to another. Herself not knowing how to recover her liberties, they were restored by men of the United Provinces.

Avarice is the vice of declining years.

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

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.

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

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

Beauty is but the sensible image of the infinite. Like truth and justice, it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law, it is a companion of the soul.

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

The charities of life are scattered everywhere, enameling the vales of human beings as the flowers paint the meadows. They are not the fruit of study, nor the privilege of refinement, but a natural instinct.

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

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

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

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