George Bancroft Quotes

33 Sourced Quotes

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.

George Bancroft
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?

George Bancroft
The feud between the capitalist and laborer, the house of Have and the house of Want, is as old as social union, and can never be entirely quieted; but he who will act with moderation, prefer fact to theory, and remember that everything in this world is relative and not absolute, will see that the violence of the contest may be stilled.

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

George Bancroft
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.

George Bancroft
It never was a prosperous world
Since priests have interfer'd with temporal matters;
The custom of their ancestors they slight,
And change their shirts of hair for robes of gold;
Thus luxury and interest rule the church,
Whilst piety and conscience dwell in caves.

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

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

George Bancroft
Each generation gathers together the imperishable children of the past, and increases them by new sons of light, alike radiant with immortality.

George Bancroft
The variation of excellence among men is rather in degree than in kind.

George Bancroft
Beauty, like truth and justice, lives within us; like virtue, and like moral law, it is a companion of the soul.

George Bancroft
The movement of the species is upward, irresistibly upward.

George Bancroft
Pedants are men who would appear to be learned, without the necessary ingredient of knowledge.

George Bancroft
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.

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

George Bancroft
Commerce defies every wind, outrides every tempest, and invades every zone.

George Bancroft
The prejudices of ignorance are more easily removed than the prejudices of interest; the first are blindly adopted; the second wilfully preferred.

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

George Bancroft
Style is the gossamer on which the needs of truth float through the world.

George Bancroft
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.

George Bancroft