George Bancroft Quotes

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The public is wiser than the wisest critic.

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.

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

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.

Avarice is the vice of declining years.