Noah Webster Quotes

Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America's basic text book in all fields. God's Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.

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.

Language is the expression of ideas, and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas they cannot retain an identity of language.

In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate-look to his character.

No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.

Any system of education...which limits instruction to the arts and sciences and rejects the aids of religion in forming the characters of citizens, is essentially defective.

The heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.

The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions.

When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country.

The man who has half a million of dollars in property... has a much higher interest in the government, than the man who has little or no property.

In some countries the common people are not permitted to read the Bible at all. In ours, it is as common as a newspaper and in schools is read with nearly the same degree of respect.

The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities, and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.

The causes which destroyed the ancient republics were numerous; but in Rome, one principal cause was the vast inequality of fortunes.

Discipline our youth in early life in sound maxims of moral, political, and religious duties.

The education of youth, an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success.

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe.

A national language is a band of national union.

An immense effect may be produced by small powers wisely and steadily directed.

Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the christian religion.

In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.

But the reasonableness of this command to obey parents, is clear, and easily understood by children, even when quite young.

The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scripture ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.

To exterminate our popular vices is a work of far more importance to the character and happiness of our citizens than any other improvements in our system of education.

Power is always right, weakness always wrong. Power is always insolent and despotic.

The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society; the best book for regulating the temporal [secular] concerns of men.

The laws are the sole guardians of right, and when the magistrate dares not act, every person is insecure.

The Moral Law is summarily contained in the Decalogue or Ten Commandments; written by the finger of God on two tablets of stone, and delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Unaffected modesty is the sweetest charm of female excellence, the richest gem in the diadem of her honor.

The ecclesiastical establishments of Europe which serve to support tyrannical governments are not the Christian religion but abuses and corruptions of it.

Compassion is a mixed passion, composed of love and sorrow.

Language, as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God.

Relief of distress or compassion shown to victims of misfortune. A blessing that is an act of Divine compassion.

Let us reject the spirit of making proselytes to particular creeds by any other means than persuasion.

Might his last glance behold the glorious ensign of the Republic still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in all their original lustre.

Ability is active power, or power to perform.

Treason is the highest crime of a civil nature of which a man can be guilty.

The Bible was America's basic textbook in all fields.

Power is always right weakness always wrong. Power is always insolent and despotic.

Language as well as the faculty of speech was the immediate gift of God.

Facts which were new to me were daily presenting themselves to my mind.

In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character.

The reasonableness of the command to obey parents is clear to children, even when quite young.