Carolina QuotesYou 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 Carolinian
Source
"The Law and the Gospel" (1896)
- year
- 1896
Cite this record
“You cannot judge a man's life by the success of a moment, by…” William Jennings Bryan. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-94FE901A6B. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/94fe901a6b
More from 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.
I can make affirmation; I can say "So help me God, I will tell the truth."
The democrat says that society is built from the bottom and the republican thinks that society is suspended from the top. The democrat says, make the masses prosperous and then all who rest upon them will share in the prosperity, but the republicans say, make the well to do prosperous and their prosperity will leak through on those below.