Charles Sumner Quotations

The age of chivalry has gone; the age of humanity has come.

No true and permanent fame can be founded except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind

From the beginning of our history the country has been afflicted with compromise. It is by compromise that human rights have been abandoned.

I have never known a man who was sensual in his youth, who was high-minded when old.

The true grandeur of humanity is in moral elevation, sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect of man

We have never dealt with the dollars we are dealing with today,

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.

War crushes with bloody heel all justice, all happiness, all that is Godlike in man. In our age there can be no peace that is not honorable; there can be no war that is not dishonorable.

The true greatness of nations is in those qualities which constitute the greatness of the individual.

The slave power dares anything, and it can be conquered only by the united masses of the people. From Congress to the people, I appeal.

Without knowledge there can be no sure progress. Vice and barbarism are the inseparable companions of ignorance. Nor is it too much to say that, except in rare instances, the highest virtue is attained only through intelligence.

If a man has done evil in his life, he must not be complimented in marble.

Whether the Union stands or falls, I believe the profession of arms will henceforth be more desirable and more respected than it has been hitherto.

No true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.

There are two sorts of pity: one is a balm and the other a poison; the first is realized by our friends, the last by our enemies.

A nation cannot afford to do a mean thing.

Nothing from man's hands, nor law, nor constitution, can be final. Truth alone is final.

The highest greatness, surviving time and stone, is that which proceeds from the soul of man. Monarchs and cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of court and the circumstance of war, in the lapse of time disappear from sight; but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose example elevates human nature, and teaches the rights of man, so that "a government of the people, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth;" such a harbinger can never be forgotten, and their renown spreads co-extensive with the cause they served so well.

Without security, civilization is cramped and dwarfed. Without security, there can be no freedom. Nor shall I say too much, when I declare that security, guarded of course by its offspring, freedom, is the true end and aim of government.

I am without religious feeling.

The thought of going abroad makes my heart leap.

Moral excellence is the bright consummate flower of all progress.

Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world forever.

By the Law of Slavery, man, created in the image of God, is divested of the human character, and declared to be a mere chattel.

Can there be in our age any peace that is not honorable, any war that is not dishonorable?

It's Christmas at Ground Zero The button has been pressed The radio Just let us know That this is not a test Everywhere the atom bombs are droppin It's the end of all humanity No more time for last minute shoppin' It's time to face your final destiny.

The phrase public office is a public trust, has of last become common property.

Give me the centralism of liberty; give me the imperialism of equal rights.

The Senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight, with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words.

There is the National Flag. He must be cold, indeed, who can look upon its folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country. If he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearment...The very colors have a language which was recognized by our fathers; white is for purity; red, for valor; blue, for justice. And altogether, bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky, make the flag of our country, to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.

The press, watchful with more than the hundred eyes of Argus, strong with more than the hundred arms of Briareus, not only guards all the conquests of civilization, but leads the way to future triumphs.

Whatever may be the temporary applause of men, or the expressions of public opinion, it may be asserted without fear of contradiction, that no true and permanent fame can be founded, except in labors which promote the happiness of mankind.

War is a positive, precise and specific evil, of gigantic proportions ...making within the sphere of its influence all true grandeur impossible.

Nothing from man's hands, no law, nor constitution, can be final. Truth alone is final.