Edward Everett Quotes

#1. What subsists to-day by violence continues to-morrow by acquiescence and is perpetuated by tradition; till at last the hoary abuse shakes the gray hairs of antiquity at us, and gives it-self out as the wisdom of ages.

Edward Everett

#2. Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity.

Edward Everett

#3. In Italy, on the breaking up of the Roman Empire, society might be said to be resolved into its original elements, - into hostile atoms, whose only movement was that of mutual repulsion.

Edward Everett

#4. When I am dead, no pageant train shall waste their sorrows at my bier. Nor worthless pomp of homage vain stain it with hypocritic tear.

Edward Everett

#5. Education safeguards liberty better than a standing army.

Edward Everett

#6. Drop a grain of California gold into the ground, and there it will lie unchanged until the end of time; ... drop a grain of our blessed gold [wheat] into the ground and lo! a mystery.

Edward Everett

#7. This glorious union shall not perish! Precious legacy of our fathers, it shall go down honored and cherished to our children. Generations unborn shall enjoy its privileges as we have done; and if we leave them poor in all besides, we will transmit to them the boundless wealth of its blessings!

Edward Everett

#8. Freedom may come quickly in robes of peace or after ages of conflict and war, but come it will, and abide it will, so long as the principles by which it was acquired are held sacred.

Edward Everett

#9. Truth travels down from the heights of philosophy to the humblest walks of life, and up from the simplest perceptions of an awakened intellect to the discoveries which almost change the face of the world. At every stage of its progress it is genial, luminous, creative.

Edward Everett

#10. There is no sanctuary of virtue like home.

Edward Everett

#11. We are blessed with a faith, which calls into action the whole intellectual man; which prescribes a reasonable service; which challenges the investigation of its evidences; and which, in the doctrine of immortality, invests the mind of man with a portion of the dignity of Divine intelligence.

Edward Everett

#12. That a great battle must soon be fought no one could doubt; but, in the apparent and perhaps real absence of plan on the part of Lee, it was impossible to foretell the precise scene of the encounter.

Edward Everett

#13. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do.

Edward Everett

#14. And now the momentous day, a day to be forever remembered in the annals of the country, arrived. Early in the morning on the 1st of July the conflict began.

Edward Everett

#15. It was appointed by law in Athens, that the obsequies of the citizens who fell in battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the most honorable manner.

Edward Everett

#16. Let a nation's fervent thanks make some amends for the toils and sufferings of those who survive.

Edward Everett

#17. I feel, as never before, how justly, from the dawn of history to the present time, men have paid the homage of their gratitude and admiration to the memory of those who nobly sacrifice their lives, that their fellow-men may live in safety and in honor.

Edward Everett

#18. I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.

Edward Everett

#19. There were speeches made in Congress in the very last session before the outbreak of the Rebellion, so ferocious as to show that their authors were under the influence of a real frenzy.

Edward Everett

#20. The highest historical probability can be adduced in support of the proposition that, if it were possible to annihilate the Bible, and with it all its influences, we should destroy with it the whole spiritual system of the moral world.

Edward Everett

#21. The heart of the People, North and South, is for the Union.

Edward Everett

#22. In conformity with these designs on the city of Washington, and notwithstanding the disastrous results of the invasion of 1862, it was determined by the Rebel government last summer to resume the offensive in that direction.

Edward Everett

#23. All the distinctive features and superiority of our republican institutions are derived from the teachings of Scripture.

Edward Everett

#24. God bless the Union; - it is dearer to us for the blood of brave men which has been shed in its defence.

Edward Everett

#25. Ever the characteristic manners of cowardice.

Edward Everett

#26. General Reynolds immediately found himself engaged with a force which greatly outnumbered his own, and had scarcely made his dispositions for the action when he fell, mortally wounded, at the head of his advance.

Edward Everett

#27. Not a moment had been lost by General Hooker in the pursuit of Lee.

Edward Everett

#28. When every brake hath found its note, and sunshine smiles in every flower.

Edward Everett

#29. Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.

Edward Everett