American lawyer, orator & politician (1860-1925)
If we delight in gossip, and are not content unless each neighbor is laid upon the dissecting table, we form a character unenviable indeed, and must be willing to bear the contempt of all the truly good, while we roll our bit of scandal as a sweet morsel under the tongue.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
Illinois College Graduating Oration, 1881
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
Illinois College Valedictory, 1881
Life is made up of an innumerable number of small acts, not considered worth doing by those who are guided by selfish considerations. Of the countless millions of kind and generous acts done, but few would have been done had it been necessary to reason out just in what way the bread "cast upon the waters" would return.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
commencement speech at Nebraska State University, 15 June, 1905
Man is a religious being; the heart instinctively seeks for a God. Whether he worships on the banks of the Ganges, prays with his face upturned to the sun, kneels toward Mecca or, regarding all space as a temple, communes with the Heavenly Father according to the Christian creed, man is essentially devout.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
lecture delivered at many Chautauquas and religious gatherings, 1904
If the Father deigns to touch with divine power the cold and pulseless heart of the buried acorn and to make it burst forth from its prison walls, will he leave neglected in the earth the soul of man, made in the image of his Creator?
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
lecture delivered at many Chautauquas and religious gatherings, 1904
Character is the entity, the individuality of the person, shining from every window of the soul, either as a beam of purity, or as a clouded ray that betrays the impurity within. The contest between light and darkness, right and wrong, goes on; day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, our characters are being formed, and this is the all-important question which comes to us in accents ever growing fainter as we journey from the cradle to the grave, "Shall those characters be good or bad?"
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
Illinois College Graduating Oration, 1881
There is evident on every side a distortion of view as to the relative desirability of a life of productive labor as compared with a life of luxurious ease, and a widening gulf seems to divide the two. This should not be true. The bud, blooming in beauty and fragrance, might as justly scorn the roots of the rosebud because they come into contact with the soil, as that any man, however trained in mind or supplied with means, should hold in contempt those who with brain and muscle coax the annual crop from mother earth, fashion the fabric which protects him from heat and cold, or bring fuel from the coal mines.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
commencement speech at Nebraska State University, 15 June, 1905
A belief in immortality not only consoles the individual, but it exerts a powerful influence in bringing peace between individuals. If one actually thinks that man dies as the brute dies, he will yield more easily to the temptation to do injustice to his neighbor when the circumstances are such as to promise security from detection. But if one really expects to meet again, and live eternally with those whom he knows today, he is restrained from evil deeds by the fear of endless remorse.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
lecture delivered at many Chautauquas and religious gatherings, 1904
Next to the ministry I know of no more noble profession than the law. The object aimed at is justice, equal and exact, and if it does not reach that end at once it is because the stream is diverted by selfishness or checked by ignorance. Its principles ennoble and its practice elevates.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
"The Law and the Gospel"
While human government exists the tendency to abuse power will remain.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
speech delivered at a bar association banquet in Lincoln, Nebraska, February 1890
No, I am sure that He who, notwithstanding his apparent prodigality, created nothing without a purpose, and wasted not a single atom in all his creation, has made provision for a future life in which man's universal longing for immortality will find its realization. I am as sure that we live again as I am sure that we live today.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
lecture delivered at many Chautauquas and religious gatherings, 1904