Top 34 Quotes & Sayings by Charles Sumner

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Charles Sumner.

Last updated on September 17, 2024.

Charles Sumner was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the U.S. Senate during the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates and guarantee equal rights to the freedmen. He fell into a dispute with President Ulysses Grant, a fellow Republican, over the control of Santo Domingo, leading to the stripping of his power in the Senate and his subsequent effort to defeat Grant's re-election.

American - Politician | January 6, 1811 - March 11, 1874

Source: Wikipedia

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

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

A nation cannot afford to do a mean thing.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

The age of Chivalry is gone. An age of Humanity has come.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

The thought of going abroad makes my heart leap.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

I am without religious feeling.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner

Moral excellence is the bright consummate flower of all progress.

Charles Sumner

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.

Charles Sumner

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

Charles Sumner