Charles Eliot Norton Quotes

8 Sourced Quotes

A knowledge of Greek thought and life, and of the arts in which the Greeks expressed their thought and sentiment, is essential to high culture. A man may know everything else, but without this knowledge he remains ignorant of the best intellectual and moral achievements of his own race.

Charles Eliot Norton
The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent.

Charles Eliot Norton
The refuge from pessimism is the good men and women at any time existing in the world, -they keep faith and happiness alive.

Charles Eliot Norton
The... first stepping-stones towards scientific knowledge are wonder and curiosity...

Charles Eliot Norton
The United States has lost her unique position as a leader in the progress of civilization and has taken up her place simply as one of the grasping and selfish nations of the present day.

Charles Eliot Norton
"The night of time far surpasseth the day," said Sir Thomas Browne, and it is the task of archaeology to light up some parts of this long night with its torch, which burns ever with a clearer flame with each advancing step into the darkness.

Charles Eliot Norton
The loss of religious faith among the most civilized portion of the race is a step from childishness toward maturity.

Charles Eliot Norton
It does not seem to me that the evidence concerning the being of a God, and concerning immortality, is such as to enable us to assert anything in regard to either of these topics.

Charles Eliot Norton