George Bancroft

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

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

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.

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

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.