“A patriot without religion in my estimation is as great a paradox as an honest man without the fear of God.  Is it possible that he whom no moral obligations bind can have any real good will towards men?  Can he be a patriot who, by an openly vicious conduct, is undermining the very bonds of society...The Scriptures tell us “righteousness exalteth a nation.”  

Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, and Early Writings.  

Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"My only hope of salvation is in the infinite, transcendent love of God, manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the cross.  Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins.  I rely exclusively upon it.  Come, Lord Jesus!  Come quickly!"

Benjamin Rush, Father of American Medicine & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

Quotes from Founding Fathers and Other Historical People

"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."

Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father & among 1st Constitutional Lawyers

“To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.”

Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments."

Charles Carroll, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights."

Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Edmund Burke, Irish Statesman

"Religion, by teaching man his relationship to God, gives the individual a sense of his own dignity and teaches him to respect himself by respecting his neighbors."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”  

George Orwell

"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic.  Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President

"Where freedom of religion has been attacked, the attack has come from sources opposed to democracy.  Where democracy has been overthrown, the spirit of free worship has disappeared.  And where religion and democracy have vanished, good faith and reason in international affairs have given way to strident ambition and brute force."

Franklin D. Roosevelt, President

"What is the militia? (referencing the 2nd Amendment)   It is the whole people.  To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."  

George Mason, Father of the Bill of Rights

"Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth."

George Washington, Father of our country & 1st President

"The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount.  The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and Saint Matthew, from Isaiah and Saint Paul...If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State!"

Harry S. Truman, President

"The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity...I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

John Adams, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

"In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide.  Regard not the particular sect (party) of the candidate - look to his character...It is alleged by men of loose principles or defective views of the subject that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations.  But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine.  They direct that rulers should be men "who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness."

Noah Webster, Father of American Scholarship and Education & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

George Washington, Father of our country & 1st President

“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”

John Adams, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

"It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia

“If you're not going to use your free speech to criticize your own government, then what the hell is the point of having it?”  

Michel Templet

“Politicians and diapers must be changed often...and for the same reason.”

Mark Twain

“Peace is not merely distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights Leader, Baptist Minister

“Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.”  

Neil Gaiman

Upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence - “We have this day restored the King to whom all men ought to be obedient.  He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”

Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.  We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors; they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence.  It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."

Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”

Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”  

Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

Theodore Roosevelt, President

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as the last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

Thomas Jefferson, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and adhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

Thomas Jefferson, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

"The Founding Fathers believed devoutly that there was a God and that the unalienable rights of man were rooted - not in the state, nor the legislature, nor in any other human power - but in God alone."

Tom Campbell Clark, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”

Thomas Paine

"Our knowledge and use of the laws of nature that enable us to fly to the moon also enable us to destroy our home planet with the atom bomb.  Science itself does not address the question whether we should use the power at our disposal for good or for evil.  The guidelines of what we ought to do are furnished in the moral law of God.  It is no longer enough that we pray that God may be with us on our side.  We must learn to pray that we may be on God's side."

Wernher von Braun, Father of American Space Program and Director of NASA

"Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich."

William F. Buckley

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England

"The history of liberty is the history of resistance.  The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.  When we resist the concentration of power, we are resisting the powers of death.  Concentration of power precedes the destruction of human liberties."

Woodrow Wilson, President

"The Bible is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God, and spiritual nature and needs of men.  It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit  in the ay of peace and salvation.  America was born a Christian nation.  America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."

Woodrow Wilson, President

"We submit our person, lives, and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given us in His Holy Word."

Rhode Island Charter of 1683

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."  

Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet."  

Robert Winthrop, Speaker of the U. S. House

"Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society."

George Washington, Father of our country & 1st President

"The Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence." 

Noah Webster, Father of American Scholarship and Education & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. . . All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible."

Noah Webster, Father of American Scholarship and Education & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts."  

John Jay, Original Chief-Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court

Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness . . . it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof." Continental Congress, 1778

"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.  Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."  

Benjamin Rush, Father of American Medicine & Signer of the Declaration of Independence

"Why should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long; and probably if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind."

 Fisher Ames, author of the final wording for the First Amendment

"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. . . . Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other."  

James Wilson, Signer of the Constitution and U. S. Supreme Court Justice

"My race needs no special defense, for the past history of tem in this country proves them to be the equal of any people anywhere.  All they need is an equal chance in the battle of life."

Robert Smalls, escaped slave,  U.S. Representative (S.C.)

"I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South.  From there I was promoted to the washtub.  From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen.  And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations...I have built my own factory on my own ground."

Sarah Breedlove, aka Madam C.J. Walker, entrepenuer

"There is no royal flower strewn path to success.  And if there is, I have not found it, for whatever success I have attained has been the result of much hard work and many sleepless nights."

Sarah Breedlove, aka Madam C.J. Walker, entrepenuer

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperitu, religion and morality are indispensable supports...And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion."

George Washington, Father of our country & 1st President, Farewell Address

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

John Adams, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

“Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion.  Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of Blindfolded fear.”

Thomas Jefferson, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

“The smallest minority on earth is the individual.  Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”

Ayn Rand, author

“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion...would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”

John Adams, President & Signer of Declaration of Independence

"A free people out not only to be armed, but disciplined;  to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies."

George Washington, Father of our country & 1st President, Farewell Address

Nation's Founding on Faith

Freedom Of Speech

Education

Morality and Liberty in a Democratic Republic

Right to Bear Arms

American Law

Individual Rights & Responsibilities

Other Quotes

"Through liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view."

William F. Buckley