George Bancroft quotes

George Bancroft was an American historian and statesman widely regarded for his authoritative works on the history of the United States. His scholarship played a significant role in shaping American historical thought and public education. He contributed greatly to diplomacy, serving as U.S. Secretary of the Navy and as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Germany. Here are 30 of his quotes:

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, gray hairs are a crown of glory: the only object of respect that can never excite envy. View quote
George Bancroft
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. View quote
George Bancroft
The fears of one class of men are not the measure of the rights of another. View quote
George Bancroft
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. View quote
George Bancroft
Avarice is the vice of declining years. View quote
George Bancroft
Sedition is bred in the lap of luxury and its chosen emissaries are the beggared spendthrift and the impoverished libertine. View quote
George Bancroft
Institutions may crumble and governments fall, but it is only that they may renew a better youth, and mount upwards like the eagle. View quote
George Bancroft
Ennui is the desire of activity without the fit means of gratifying the desire. View quote
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? View quote
George Bancroft
Where the people possess no authority, their rights obtain no respect. (George Bancroft)
In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person. View quote
George Bancroft
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. View quote
George Bancroft
Dishonesty is so grasping it would deceive God himself, were it possible. View quote
George Bancroft
The glory of God is not contingent on man's good will, but all existence subserves his purposes. View quote
George Bancroft
The public is wiser than the wisest critic. View quote
George Bancroft
Conscience is the mirror of our souls, which represents the errors of our lives in their full shape. View quote
George Bancroft
If reason is a universal faculty, the decision of the common mind is the nearest criterion of truth. View quote
George Bancroft
Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement. View quote
George Bancroft
The progress of man consists in this, that he himself arrives at the perception of truth. View quote
George Bancroft
The relation of good to evil is from the beginning, and is unalterable. (George Bancroft)
The universe is the reflex and image of its Creator. View quote
George Bancroft
They speak falsely who say that truth is the daughter of time; it is the child of eternity, and as old as the Divine mind. View quote
George Bancroft
No science has been reached, no thought generated, no truth discovered, which has not from all time existed potentially in every human mind. View quote
George Bancroft
Things proceed as they were ordered, in their nice, and well-adjusted, and perfect harmony; so that as the hand of the skilful artist gathers music from the harp-strings, history calls it forth from the well-tuned chords of time. View quote
George Bancroft