Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 27 |
| AUTHOR: | William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) |
| QUOTATION: | Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country…. We will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Often referred to as the “Cross of Gold” speech because of its widely-quoted concluding sentence, above. He served in Congress 1891–1895. |
| SUBJECTS: | Agriculture |