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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 Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855)

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More quotes by George Bancroft

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

A History of the United States (1834)

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

A History of the United States (1834)

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.

Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855)

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

Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855)

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

Literary and Historical Miscellanies (1855)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: George Bancroft (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.