Governor Winthrop Quotes & Sayings

In a shipboard lecture en route to America, John Winthrop, Massachusetts' first governor, called the soon-to-be-founded settlement "a city on a hill," a model of God's ultimate plan for humanity. Elaborated by a succession of ministers, this sense of divine purpose arose from a particular reading of sacred history: God had chosen the Puritans to create in America a New Zion, as He had once chosen the Jews in ancient times. Sometimes reformulated in secular language, this deep-seated belief in America's unique role in history would long survive. — Paul S. Boyer

It's hard to believe we're barricading ourselves against the one boy who used to protect me. — Shannon Duffy

Behavior speaks ... Before you even open your mouth, your actions have told me who you are and what you're about. — Steve Maraboli

Whenever I felt tempted to, I don't know, watch cat videos or bad Netflix TV instead of writing this [Louis] Brandeis biography, I thought of his stern but kindly visage and buckled down and wrote the damn thing, because there's so much information out there, and these are such anxious times in democracy, such unreasonable times. — Jeffrey Rosen

Governor Winthrop despised democracy, which he brusquely labeled "the meanest and worst of all forms of Government." For Puritans, the church and state worked in tandem; the coercive arm of the magistracy was meant to preserve both public order and class distinctions. — Nancy Isenberg

Anthony watched him, dumbfounded, and then turned to Lucy. "What have you done with Zack's brain?"
Lucy stood to follow Zack. "What brain? I don't think he has one. I think he's just one giant exposed nerve ending. I swear sometimes at night, I can hear his neurons snapping like popcorn. — Jennifer Crusie

I knew there was no point in debating a man such as this. The world bent and contorted itself to fit his understanding, not the other way around. I could not make him see reason, could not make him regret his actions. It would be a mistake to try. — David Liss

I was never raised to think that I was pretty. It's not that I was raised to think I was unattractive, but it was just never something that was pointed out to me by my family. They would point out personality traits - 'our daughter is really quirky' - versus what I look like, because inevitably, looks go, so it makes no difference. — Mila Kunis