“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is the genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitution of government.”
— Noah Webster (1758-1843)  Father of the Dictionary & American Patriot

"The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart."
— Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the U. S

“Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul.” "Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics."
— John Adams (1797-1801) Second President of the United States and Patriot

"I had the honor of being one among many who framed that Constitution. … In order effectually to accomplish these great ends, it is incumbent upon us to begin wisely, and to proceed in the fear of God; and it is especially the duty of those who bear rule, to promote and encourage piety and virtue, and to discountenance every degree of vice and immorality.”
— Henry Laurens (1724-1796 ) President of Congress, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention

“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.”
— Noah Webster (1758-1843)  Father of the Dictionary & American Patriot

“As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed.”
— John Adams (1797-1801) Second President of the United States and Patriot

“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.”
— Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) Founding Father& signer of the Declaration of Independence

“Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited!  Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow man; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God. In this commonwealth, no man would impair his health by gluttony, drunkenness, or lust; no man would sacrifice his most precious time to cards or any other trifling and mean amusement; no man would steal, or lie, or in any way defraud his neighbor, but would live in peace and good will with all men; no man would blaspheme his Maker or profane his worship; but a rational and manly, a sincere and unaffected piety and devotion would reign in all hearts. What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this region be!"
— John Adams (1797-1801) Second President of the United States and Patriot

“It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combin'd to destroy the people's liberties, practice every art to poison their morals.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman

“When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community. The objects of their desires are changed; what they were fond of before has become indifferent; they were free while under the restraint of laws, but they would fain now be free to act against law.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the U. S

"Revelations assures us that ‘righteousness exalteth a nation.’ He rewards or punishes them according to the general character. The diminution of public virtue is usually attended with that of public happiness, and the public liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals." 
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman

“He asks how the evil is to be remedied. I tell him that there seems to be little chance for avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy; that the only ground of hope must be the morals of the people, but that these are, I fear, too corrupt.”
— Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) Statesman, Diplomat, writer of the final draft of the Constitution

"A good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous." 
— George Washington (1732-1799) Father of the Country, 1st President of the United States

"Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion…are undermining the solid morals, the best security for the duration of free government.”
— Charles Carroll (1737-1832) Founding Father

"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. …Let us, by all wise and constitutional measures, promote intelligence among the People, as the best means of preserving our liberties."
— James Monroe (1758-1831) Fifth President of the United States

"Nothing is more certain than that a general profligacy and corruption of manners make a people ripe for destruction. A good form of government may hold the rotten materials together for some time, but beyond a certain pitch, even the best constitution will be ineffectual, and slavery must ensue."
— John Witherspoon (1722-1794) Educator, Economist, Minister, Writer & Founding Father

“I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there is not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical (imaginary; fanciful or vainly conceived) idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.”
— James Madison (1751-1836) Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States

“Ours is a kind of struggle designed, I dare say, by Providence to try the patience, fortitude, and virtue of men. None, therefore, who is engaged in it, will suffer himself, I trust, to sink under difficulties, or be discouraged by hardships. If he cannot do as he wishes, he must do what he can.”
— George Washington (1732-1799) Father of the Country, 1st President of the United States

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. We must not conclude merely upon a man's haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman

“Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement … Manners, by which not only the freedom, but the very existence of the republics, are greatly affected, depend much upon the public institutions of religion and the good education of youth; in both these instances our fathers laid wise foundations, for which their posterity have had reason to bless their memory.”
— John Hancock, (1737-1793) Boston Merchant, Founding Father & Patriot

“The general government is arranged, that it can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any other despotic or oppressive form, so long as there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people.”
— George Washington (1732-1799) Father of the Country, 1st President of the United States

“Our liberty depends on our education, our laws and habits, to which even prejudices yield; on the dispersion of our people on farms, and on the almost equal diffusion of property; it is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart; and on the influence all these produce on public opinion, before that opinion governs rulers.”
— Fisher Ames (1758-1808) Founding Father and framer of the First Amendment to the Constitution

“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, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. … Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
— George Washington (1732-1799) Father of the Country, 1st President of the United States

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families." The Amor Patriae (love of ones country) is both a moral duty and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations. This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first characters of history.”
— Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) Founding Father& signer of the Declaration of Independence

"The happiness of man, as well as his dignity, consists in virtue."
— John Adams (1797-1801) Second President of the United States and Patriot

“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.”
— Noah Webster (1758-1843)  Father of the Dictionary & American Patriot

“It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.”
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third President of the United States

"It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution."
— Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Third President of the United States

“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust."
— James Madison (1751-1836) Father of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States

“Never did a Government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid— gigantic: of a people so prosperous and happy, Ini contemplating what we have still to perform, the heart of every citizen must expand with joy, when he reflects how near our Government has approached to perfection; that, in respect to it, we have no essential improvement to make; that the great object is, to preserve it in the essential principles and features which characterize it, and that that is to be done by preserving the virtue and enlightening the minds of the people; and, as a security against foreign dangers, to adopt such arrangements as are indispensable to the support of our independence, our rights, and liberties. If we persevere in the career in which we bare advanced so far, and in the path already traced, we cannot fail, under the favor of a gracious Providence, to attain the high destiny which seems to await us …

I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrage of my fellow-citizens with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protect which He has already so conspicuously displayed in our favor."
— James Monroe (1758-1831) Fifth President of the United States

“What are those virtues? They are chiefly the same virtues, which we have already seen to be descriptive of the American character—the love of liberty, and the love of law. But law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge. The same course of study, properly directed, will lead us to the knowledge of both. Indeed, neither of them can be known, because neither of them can exist, without the other. Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression. Without law, liberty also loses its nature and its name, and becomes licentiousness.”
— James Wilson (1742-1798) Founding Father, assisted in drafting the Constitution, Supreme Court Justice.

"A good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important, that you should endeavor not only to be learned, but virtuous. Much more might be said to show the necessity of application and regularity; but when you must know, that without them you can never be qualified to render service to your country, assistance to your friends, or consolation to your retired moments, nothing further need be said to prove their utility.”
— George Washington (1732-1799) Father of the Country, 1st President of the United States

“The American war is over; but this far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government, and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens for these forms of government after they are established and brought to perfection.”
— Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) Founding Father& signer of the Declaration of Independence

"Wisdom and knowledge as well as virtue diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education, in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislatures and magistrates…to cherish the interests of literature, and the sciences, and all seminaries of learning. … You have put upon us by your legislation an immense mass of ignorant voters. They have not wisdom, they have not knowledge, some of them even have no virtue, as is the case in every community. These are not diffused among them; from the very nature of the case it cannot be; and yet how anxiously you guard their rights to go to the polls to make laws for us and to regulate our affairs. You have, it may be wisely or unwisely, excluded them from the polls in your States. They must have something of this wisdom, something of this knowledge, something of this virtue there, before you permit them to go to your polls."
— John Adams (1797-1801) Second President of the United States and Patriot

“The Importance of Piety & religion, of industry & frugality, of prudence, economy, regularity & an even government, all which are essential to the well being of a family. But I have not time. I cannot however help repeating piety, because I think it indispensible. Religion in a family is at once its brightest ornament & its best security. The first point of justice, says a writer I have met with, consists in piety; nothing certainly being so great a debt upon us, as to render to the Creator & Preserver those acknowledgments which are due to Him for our Being, and the hourly protection he affords us.”
— Samuel Adams (1722–1803) Father of the American Revolution, Patriot and Statesman

“The Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Dutch, all lost their public spirit, their republican principles and habits, and their republican forms of government when they lost the modesty and domestic virtues of their women. The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families. In vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years. The mothers are the earliest and most important instructors of youth. The vices and examples of the parents can not be concealed from the children. The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity, and humanity.”
— John Adams (1797-1801) Second President of the United States and Patriot

“Patience is a noble virtue, and, when rightly exercised, does not fail of its reward.”
— George Washington (1732-1799) Father of the Country, 1st President of the United States

“You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life, without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother. …”If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it.’”
— Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Statesman, Scientist, Inventor, Printer and Philosopher [Letter to Thomas Paine on draft of Age of Reason]

“If we cherish the virtues and the principles of our fathers, Heaven will assist us to carry on the work of human liberty and human happiness. Auspicious omens cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path.”
— Daniel Webster (1782-1852) Author, Lawyer and Patriot

“The only sure cure for many of the ills of the modern world which men are vainly trying to remove by means of social and economic antidotes is to be found in the faith in God and loyalty to the eternal verities of religion. The recognition of a personal God and of the individual accountability of men and women to him, for their conduct are the foundations of the highest patriotism and of those civic virtues which alone can make men and nations morally great. The human race has been getting away from its religious moorings. It needs a revival of the sincere conception of the personal relationship of God to man and man to God; a restoration of faith in the fundamentals of religion that are eternal. The world needs the assurance of faith in the Almighty, and the tranquility which comes alone of that faith. That faith in God which has made the ancient Hebrew nation great, is still needed to make nations great to-day.”
— Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) 29^th President of the United States

"A state is nothing more than a reflection of its citizens; the more decent the citizens, the more decent the state.”
— Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) 40th President of the United States

"Then the disciples came and said to him, 'Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?' He answered, 'Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.'"
— Matthew 15:12-14 RSV

"Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society and without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget we’re one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under."
— Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) 40th President of the United States

"But Peter said to him, 'Explain the parable to us.' And he said, 'Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.'"
— Matthew 15:15-20 RSV

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
— Proverbs 14:34 RSV

 “History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.”
— Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) Army General, involved in war in the Philippines, World War I, II & Korean War

“We may wonder at the choice of Israel and Rome as the archetypes of the new nation, in view of the long history of suffering of the former and the decline of the latter. We may wonder that our ancestors over-looked the darker days of those earlier nations. They did not. They hoped to construct a republic on principles to sound that if we should decline in piety and public virtue we would meet the inexorable fate of nations, which are as but dust in the hands of God.” 
— Robert N Bellah (1927-  ) American sociologist, professor and author (The Broken Covenant)

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
— C.S. Lewis (1898 -1963) Irish writer, scholar & Christian apologetic

"A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue."
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) Political Philosopher and writer

“Liberty considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom.”
— Alexis de Toqueville (1805-1859) French Author

"Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions."
— G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) British Journalist, Poet, Author and Playwright

“But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.”
— Edmund Burke (1729-1797) British Statesman, Lawyer, Writer, and Philosopher

“Jesus is the purest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the pure, who, with his pierced hand has raised empires from their foundations, turned the stream of history from its old channel, and still continues to rule and guide the ages”
— Jean Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825) German writer

“Warn my children to avoid the precipices of pride and haughtiness, and to walk in the pleasant meadows of modesty; not to be dazzled by the sight of gold; not to lament that they do not possess what they erroneously admire in others; not to think more of themselves for gaudy trappings, nor less for the want of them; neither to deform the beauty that nature has given them by neglect, nor to try to heighten it by artifice; to put virtue in the first place, learning in the second; and in their studies to esteem most whatever may teach them piety towards God, charity to all, and Christian humility in themselves. …These I consider the real and genuine fruits of learning, and I would maintain that those who give themselves to study with such intent will easily attain their end and become perfect.”
— Saint Thomas More (1478–1535) English lawyer, author, statesman and martyr

“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist”
— Edmund Burke (1729-1797) British Statesman, Lawyer, Writer, and Philosopher

"No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous."
— Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English Author and Journalist

"It is better to cherish virtue and humanity, by leaving much to free will, even with some loss of the object, than to attempt to make men mere machines and instruments of political benevolence. The world on the whole will gain by a liberty, without which virtue cannot exist."
— Edmund Burke (1729-1797) British Statesman, Lawyer, Writer, and Philosopher

"A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage."
— Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English playwright, essayist and politician

"The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily. They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope." 
— Lech Walesa (1943-   ) Polish electrican, rights activist who co-founded Solidarity, later became President of Poland