"France has neither winter, nor summer, nor morals. France is miserable
because it is filled with Frenchmen, and Frenchmen are miserable because
they live in France." --Mark Twain

"The real freedom of any individual can always be measured by the
amount of responsibility which he must assume for his own welfare and
security." --Robert Welch

"Respect for religion must be reestablished, public debt should be reduced,
the arrogance of public officials must be curtailed, assistance to foreign
lands must be stopped or we shall bankrupt ourselves. The people should be
forced to work and not depend on the government for subsistence."
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman orator and philosopher (106-43BC)

"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 (1758-1843)

"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity,
will change the face of the world."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and
prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and
you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from
society."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human
passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only
for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government
of any other."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider
well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ
which is eternally life."
Harvard University (Pamphlet published in 1643)

"Christ is the only, the true, the living way of access to God."
Timothy Dwight, Yale University President (1795-1817)

"Give up yourselves therefore to Him, [God] with a cordial confidence, and
the great work of life is done."
Timothy Dwight, Yale University President (1814 Baccalaureate Discourse)

"The chief Thing that is aimed at in this College is to teach and engage the
Children to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him, in all
Sobriety, Godliness, and Righteousness of Life, with a perfect Heart, and a
willing Mind."
Columbia University publication (1754)

"When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public
officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose
for rulers, just men who will rule in the fear of God. The preservation
of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the
citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the
government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public
good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men
will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be
squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated
or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and
happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and
elect bad men to make and administer the Laws."
Noah Webster 1758-1843

"Our task and our duty must be to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly
with our God, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill
and the eyes of all are upon us."
John Winthrop (1588-1649) Puritan and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony from 1630 to 1649

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred
as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice
to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If 'Thou shalt not covet' and
'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made
inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made
free."
John Adams

"I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for
liberty will terminate gloriously for America.Let us humbly commit our
righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness
and hates iniquity.Let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him
who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He
pleases."
John Hancock, American Patriot and Revolutionary

"In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to
reflect.All confidence must be withheld from the means we use and respond
only on that God who rules in the armies of Heaven and without whose
blessing the best of human councils are but foolishness and all created
power vanity.and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of
Heaven."
John Hancock, April 15, 1775, just four days before the "shot heard round
the world".

"My God, how little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are
in possession of and which no other people on earth have ever enjoyed."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third President of the United States. Author
of the Declaration of Independence.

"If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be
enslav'd. This will be their great Security."
Samuel Adams "The Father of the American Revolution"

"What is liberty without...virtue? It is...madness, without restraint."
Edmund Burke

"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame
with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America
. . . America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will
cease to be great."
Alexis de Tocqueville

"If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."
William Penn

"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 1758-1843

"Doctor, I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of
Christ is to a man about to die. This is all the inheritance I can give to
my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which can make
them rich indeed."
Patrick Henry (1799, on his death bed)

"To commit our children to the care of irreligious people is to commit lambs
to the superintendency of wolves."
Timothy Dwight, President of Yale from 1795-1817

"The Bible is the book upon which this Republic rests."
Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States

"My custom is, to read four or five chapters [of the Bible] every morning
immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time.
It is essential, my son, in order that you may go through life with comfort
to yourself, and usefulness to your fellow-creatures, that you should form
and adopt certain rules or principles, for the government of your own
conduct and temper."
President John Adams in a letter to his son John Quincy Adams

"And now, Almighty Father, if it is Thy holy will that we shall obtain a
place and name among the nations of the earth, grant that we may be enabled
to show our gratitude for Thy goodness by our endeavors to fear and obey
Thee. Bless us with Thy wisdom in our counsels, success in battle, and let
all our victories be tempered with humanity. Endow, also, our enemies with
enlightened minds, that they become sensible of their injustice, and willing
to restore our liberty and peace. Grant the petition of Thy servant, for the
sake of Him whom Thou hast called Thy beloved Son; nevertheless, not my
will, but Thine be done."
General George Washington 1779

"O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I
acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of
the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of
sins... Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day
prescribed in Thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in Thy
sight."
President George Washington (From a booklet of prayers he wrote.)

"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our
defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in
all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of
despotism at your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of
bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample
on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence
and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among
you."
Abraham Lincoln 1858

"At what point should we expect the approach of danger? By what means are
we to fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military
power to step across the ocean and crush us? Never. At what point then is
the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it
cannot and it will not come from abroad. If danger ever reach us, it must
spring up from amongst us. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be
its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live through all
time or die by suicide."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) From an 1838 speech when he was just 29 years
old.

"It's the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God,
to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits and to humbly implore his
protection and his favor."
George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States.

"We need God to be our friend and our ally. We need to keep God's
concurring aid. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice,
is it probable an empire can rise without His aid? We've been assured in
the sacred writings that 'except the Lord keep the city, they labor in vain
that build it.'"
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher,
diplomat and scientist. This quote was said on the floor of the
Constitutional Convention June 28, 1787

"He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity,
will change the face of the world."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and
prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and
you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from
society."
Benjamin Franklin

"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: That it connected in
one dissoluble bond the principles of Christianity with the principles of
civil government."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the
Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous
liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government and give
it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His
providence."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to
that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and
guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of
nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising
Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the
past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future."
James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be
secure when we remove from them a conviction these liberties are a gift of
God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and
His justice cannot sleep forever."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The precepts of philosophy laid hold to actions only, but Jesus pushed His
scrutinies into the heart of man, erected the tribunal in the region of his
thoughts and purified the waters at the fountainhead."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"Your love of liberty -- your respect for the laws -- your habits of
industry -- and your practice of the moral and religious obligations, are
the strongest claims to national and individual happiness."
George Washington

"The Americans, combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so
intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the
one without the other."
Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)

"[Religion] is more needed in democratic republics than in any others. How
is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be
not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what
can be done with a people which is its own master, if it be not submission
to the Divinity?"
Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (1835)

"We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power
of government. Far from it. We have staked the future of all our political
institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves
according to the Ten Commandments of God."
James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"Providence has given to us the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as
well as the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians
for their rulers."
John Jay (1745-1829) First Supreme Court Chief Justice

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation
was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religion but on
the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human
passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only
for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government
of any other."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"Why is it next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous
and most venerated festival returns on this day, the Fourth Of July? It is
because the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact
on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission on earth and laid the
cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) From a speech on July 4th 1837.

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have
been preserved these many years in peace and in prosperity. We have grown
in numbers and wealth and in power as no other nation ever has, but we have
forgotten God. We have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of
redeeming and preserving grace, and too proud to pray."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"It is the duty of all nations as well as of men to own their dependence on
the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in
the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are
blessed whose god is the Lord."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my
fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe,
who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can
supply every human defect...No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore
the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the
United States."
George Washington (1732-1799)

"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can
prevail in the exclusion of religious principle."
George Washington (1732-1799)

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity,
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man
claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great
pillars of human happiness."
George Washington (1732-1799)

"[W]e ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious [favorable] smiles
of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal
rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."
George Washington (1732-1799)

"The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were.the
general principles of Christianity.I will avow that I then believed, and now
believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and
immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles
of liberty are as unalterable as human nature."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon
which freedom can securely stand. Religion and virtue are the only
foundations...of republicanism and of all free governments."
John Adams (1735-1826) Second President of the United States.

"The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He
[God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that
they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in
the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found
delivered in greater purity than in his discourses."
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"The belief in a God all Powerful, wise and good, is so essential to the
moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which
enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources."
James Madison (1751-1836) Fourth President of the United States.

"And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we
no longer need His assistance?...[W]ithout His concurring aid...we ourselves
shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher,
diplomat and scientist.

"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt
and vicious, they have more need of masters."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American printer, author, philosopher,
diplomat and scientist.

"Three points of doctrine, the belief of which forms the foundation of all
morality. The first is the existence of a God; the second is the
immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards
and punishments. Suppose it is possible for a man to disbelieve either of
these articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have
no other law than that of the tiger or the shark; the laws of man may bind
him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise,
virtuous, or happy."
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848)

"[T]he law.dictated by God himself is, of course, superior in obligation to
any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all
times. No human laws are of any validity if contrary to this."
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)

"I conjure you, by all that is dear, by all that is honorable, by all that
is sacred, not only that ye pray but that ye act."
John Hancock (1737-1793) First signer of the Declaration of Independence.

"You do well to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion
of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you
are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise
intention."
George Washington from his speech to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on May 12,
1779.

"The great pillars of all government and of social life .[are] virtue,
morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that
renders us invincible."
Patrick Henry (1736-1799) American Orator and Statesman

"Has it [government] any solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone...? I
think it is an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God, the
author of Nature whose laws never vary...Government...is by no means an
arbitrary thing depending merely on compact or human will for its
existence... The power of God Almighty is the only power that can properly
and strictly be called supreme and absolute. In the order of nature
immediately under him comes the power of a simple democracy, or the power of
the whole over the world...[God is] the only Monarch in the universe who has
a clear and undisputable right to absolute power because He is the only one
who is omniscient as well as omnipotent... The sum of my argument is of God,
that the administrators of it were originally the whole people."
Samuel Adams (1722-1803) The Father of the American Revolution

"I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the states
over which you preside, in His holy protection.that He would most graciously
be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean
ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were
the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an
humble imitation of whose example, we can never hope to be a happy nation."
George Washington in his last official address to Congress