George Bancroft

It is when the hour of conflict is over, that history comes to a right understanding of the strife, and is ready to exclaim: "Lo! God is here, and we knew it not."

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.

The glory of God is not contingent on man's good will, but all existence subserves his purposes.

Harmony is the characteristic of the intellectual system of the universe; and immutable laws of moral existence must pervade all time and all space, all ages and all worlds.

Beauty Itself Is But The Sensible Image Of The Infinite

The universe is the reflex and image of its Creator.

The progress of man consists in this, that he himself arrives at the perception of truth.

The relation of good to evil is from the beginning, and is unalterable.

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. The perception of it takes place in the order of time; truth itself knows nothing of the succession of ages.

No science has been reached, no thought generated, no truth discovered, which has not from all time existed potentially in every human mind.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 …

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

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

Avarice is the vice of declining years.

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