William Jennings Bryan Quotes

Enjoy the top 98 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by William Jennings Bryan.

“If it be true, as I believe it is, that morality is dependent upon religion, then religion is not only the most practical thing in the world, but the first essential.”
— William Jennings Bryan —

“Service is the measure of greatness; it always has been true; it is true today, and it always will be true, that he is greatest who does the most of good. Nearly all of our controversies and combats grow out of the fact that we are trying to get something from each other
there will be peace when our aim is to do something for each other. The human measure of a human life is its income; the divine measure of a life is its outgo, its overflow
its contribution to the welfare of all.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Our government, conceived in liberty and purchased with blood, can be preserved only by constant vigilance. May we guard it as our children's richest legacy, for what shall it profit our nation if it shall gain the whole world and lose "the spirit that prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere"?”

— William Jennings Bryan

“You came to tell us that the great cities are in favour of the gold standard; we reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile plains. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy out farms and the grass will grow in the city ... You shall not press down upon the brow of labour this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Why, these men would destroy the Bible on evidence that would not convict a habitual criminal of a misdemeanor. They found a tooth in a sand pit in Nebraska with no other bones about it, and from that one tooth decided that it was the remains of the missing link. They have queer ideas about age too. They find a fossil and when they are asked how old it is they say they can't tell without knowing what rock it was in, and when they are asked how old the rock is they say they can't tell unless they know how old the fossil is.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The only part of evolution in which any considerable interest is felt is evolution applied to man. A hypothesis in regard to the rocks and plant life does not affect the philosophy upon which one's life is built. Evolution applied to fish, birds and beasts would not materially affect man's view of his own responsibilities except as the acceptance of an unsupported hypothesis as to these would be used to support a similar hypothesis as to man. The evolution that is harmful-distinctly so-is the evolution that destroys man's family tree as taught by the Bible and makes him a descendant of the lower forms of life. This ... is a very vital matter.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical, or infidels, or agnostics, or atheists.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“There can be no settlement of a great cause without discussion, and people will not discuss a cause until their attention is drawn to it.”

— William Jennings Bryan

If the Bible had said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I would believe it.

— William Jennings Bryan

“Eloquent speech is not from lip to ear, but rather from heart to heart.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The Imperial German Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“If we have to give up either religion or education, we should give up education.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“All the ills from which America suffers can be traced to the teaching of evolution.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Anglo-Saxon civilization has taught the individual to protect his own rights; American civilization will teach him to respect the rights of others.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Evolution seems to close the heart to some of the plainest spiritual truths while it opens the mind to the wildest guesses advanced in the name of science.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Behold a republic standing erect while empires all around are bowed beneath the weight of their own armaments - a republic whose flag is loved while other flags are only feared.”

— William Jennings Bryan

If we desire rules to govern our spiritual development we turn back to the Sermon on the Mount.

— William Jennings Bryan

Greed is at the bottom of most of the wrong-doing with which government has to deal.

— William Jennings Bryan

“Success is brought by continued labor and continued watchfulness. We must struggle on, not for one moment hesitate, nor take one backward step.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The Rock of Ages is more important than the age of rocks.”

— William Jennings Bryan

Principles are eternal ...

— William Jennings Bryan

“If it be true, as I believe it is, that morality is dependent upon religion, then religion is not only the most practical thing in the world, but the first essential.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance, as that it is wrong to steal, don't argue with him-search him; the reason may be found in his pocket.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“As long as there are human rights to be defended; as long as there are great interests to be guarded; as long as the welfare of nations is a matter for discussion, so long will public speaking have its place.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Only those who believe attempt the seemingly impossible.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Our government conceived in freedom and purchased with blood can be preserved only by constant vigilance.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endangers its cargo.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The Bible holds up before us ideals that are within sight of the weakest and the lowliest, and yet so high that the best and the noblest are kept with their faces turned ever upward. It carries the call of the Saviour to the remotest corners of the earth; on its pages are written the assurances of the present and our hopes for the future”

— William Jennings Bryan

If you want criticisms, read the dissenting opinions of the Court. That will give you criticisms.

— William Jennings Bryan

When we advocate a thing which we believe will be successful we are not compelled to raise a doubt as to our own sincerity by trying to show what we will do if we are wrong.

— William Jennings Bryan

“An orator is a man who says what he thinks and feels what he says.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“No greater victory can be won by citizens or soldiers than to transform temporary foes into permanent friends.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“We have our thoughts, our hopes, our fears, and yet we know that in a moment a change may come over any one of us that will convert a living, breathing human being into a mass of lifeless clay.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Real estate is the best investment for small savings. More money is made from the rise in real estate values than from all other causes combined.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The first thing to understand is the difference between the natural person and the fictitious person called a corporation. They differ in the purpose for which they are created, in the strength which they possess, and in the restraints under which they act.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“A corporation has no rights except those given it by law. It can exercise no power except that conferred upon it by the people through legislation, and the people should be as free to withhold as to give, public interest and not private advantage being the end in view.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“Wars are sometimes waged to extend trade-the blood of many being shed to enrich a few.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“A belief in God is fundamental; upon it rest the influences that control life.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“I have been so satisfied with the Christian religion that I have spent no time trying to find arguments against it ... I am not afraid now that you will show me any. I feel that I have enough information to live and die by.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“That is the one thing in my public career that I regret
my work to secure the enactment of the Federal Reserve Law.”

— William Jennings Bryan

If we steal a man's purse we are thieves. If we steal twelve hundred islands we are patriots. If you steal a man's money you will be sent to the penitentiary. If you steal his liberty you will be sent to the White House.

— William Jennings Bryan

“The money problem facing the country from 1789 to 1896 existed because Congress never exercised is authority to "coin money or regulate the value thereof" - but rather delegated that authority, sometimes by charter and sometimes by default, to the banking system. This despite the provision in the Constitution that charged Congress with the power to 'coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standards of weight and Measures.'”

— William Jennings Bryan

“We can exterminate Ku Kluxism better by recognizing their honesty and teaching them that they are wrong.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“You cannot judge a man's life by the success of a moment, by the victory of an hour, or even by the results of a year. You must view his life as a whole. You must stand where you can see the man as he treads the entire path that leads from the cradle to the grave - now crossing the plain, now climbing the steeps, now passing through pleasant fields, now wending his way with difficulty between rugged rocks - tempted, tried, tested, triumphant.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“The poor man who takes property by force is called a thief, but the creditor who can by legislation make a debtor pay a dollar twice as large as he borrowed is lauded as the friend of a sound currency. The man who wants the people to destroy the Government is an anarchist, but the man who wants the Government to destroy the people is a patriot.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“A man who murders another shortens by a few brief years the life of a human being; but he who votes to increase the burden of debts upon the people of the United States assumes a graver responsibility.”

— William Jennings Bryan

“God may be a matter of indifference to the evolutionists, and a life beyond may have no charm for them, but the mass of mankind will continue to worship their creator and continue to find comfort in the promise of their Savior that he has gone to prepare a place for them.”