Noah Webster Quotes & Sayings

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

Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country. — Noah Webster

Every civil government is based upon some religion or philosophy of life. Education in a nation will propagate the religion of that nation. In America, the foundational religion was Christianity. And it was sown in the hearts of Americans through the home and private and public schools for centuries. Our liberty, growth, and prosperity was the result of a Biblical philosophy of life. Our continued freedom and success is dependent on our educating the youth of America in the principles of Christianity. — Noah Webster

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

There are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are the combined force of religion and law, and the force or fear of the bayonet. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties. — Noah Webster

To suppose that man without language taught himself to speak, seems to me as absurd as it would be to suppose that without legs he could teach himself to walk. Language, therefore, must have been the immediate gift of God. — Noah Webster

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

The liberty of the press, trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Writ, even Magna Carta itself, although justly deemed the paladia of freedom, are all inferior considerations, when compared with the general distribution of real property among every class of people. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive. — Noah Webster

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

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. — Noah Webster

The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men. — Noah Webster

AB'ACOT, noun The cap of State, formerly used by English Kings, wrought into the figure of two crowns. — Noah Webster

It is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion. — Noah Webster

There iz no alternativ. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors.
[This quote illustrates the reformed spelling advocated by Webster.] — Noah Webster

The minds of youth are perpetually led to the history of Greece and Rime or to Great Britain; Boys are constantly repeating the declamations of Demosthenes and Cicero, or debates upon some political question in the British Parliament. — Noah Webster

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

The education of youth should be watched with the most scrupulous attention. [I]t is much easier to introduce and establish an effectual system ... than to correct by penal statutes the ill effects of a bad system ... The education of youth ... lays the foundations on which both law and gospel rest for success. — Noah Webster

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

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. — Noah Webster

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

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

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. — Noah Webster

ABAC'TOR, noun [Latin from abigo, ab and ago, to drive.] In law, one that feloniously drives away or steals a herd or numbers of cattle at once, in distinction from one that steals a sheep or two. — Noah Webster

As a general rule, it may be affirmed that the man who never intrigues for office may be most safely entrusted with office ... Such a man cannot desire promotion unless he received it from the respectable part of the community, for he considers no other promotion to be honorable. — Noah Webster

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

A national language is a band of national union. — Noah Webster

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

ABAD'DON, noun [Hebrew Chaldee Syriac Samaritan to be lost, or destroyed, to perish.] 1. The destroyer, or angel of the bottomless pit. Revelation 9. 2. The bottomless pit. Milton. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. — Noah Webster

The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be assessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

Why not include a provision that everybody shall, in good weather, hunt on his own land and catch fish in rivers that are public property and that Congress shall never restrain any inhabitant of America from eating and drinking, at seasonable times, or prevent his lying on his left side, in a long winter's night, or even on his back, when he is fatigued by lying on his right. — Noah Webster

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

[I]f 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. — Noah Webster

Let the people have property and they will have power - a power that will forever be exerted to prevent the restriction of the press, the abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgment of any other privilege. — Noah Webster

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

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. — Noah Webster

Nothing has a greater tendency to lessen the reverence which mankind ought to have for the Supreme Being, than a careless repetition of his name upon every trifling occasion ... To prevent this profanation, such passages are selected from scripture, as contain some important precepts of morality and religion, in which that sacred name is seldom mentioned. Let sacred things be appropriated to sacred purposes. — Noah Webster

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

It is admitted that all men have an equal right to the enjoyment of their life, property and personal security; and it is the duty as it is the object, of government to protect every man in this enjoyment. — Noah Webster

Dancing is an excellent amusement for young people, especially for those of sedentary occupations. Its excellence consists in exciting a cheerfulness of the mind, highly essential to health; in bracing the muscles of the body, and in producing copious perspiration ... The body must perspire, or must be out of order. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

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

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

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 a republican government depends on the faithful discharge of this duty. — Noah Webster

Whenever a man is known to seek promotion by intrigue, by temporizing, or by resorting to the haunts of vulgarity and vice for support, it may be inferred, with moral certainty, that he is not a man of real respectability, nor is he entitled to public confidence. — Noah Webster

Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety. A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state. — Noah Webster

Power is always right, weakness always wrong. Power is always insolent and despotic. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

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

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

Where will you find any code of laws among civilized men in which the commands and prohibitions are not founded on Christian principles? I need not specify the prohibition of murder, robbery, theft, trespass. — Noah Webster

Ability is active power, or power to perform. — Noah Webster

[T]he 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

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

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. — Noah Webster

Aam AAM, noun [Chaldee for a cubit, a measure containing 5 or 6 palms.] A measure of liquids among the Dutch equal to 288 English pints. — Noah Webster

But while property is considered as the basis of the freedom of the American yeomanry, there are other auxiliary supports; among which is the information of the people. In no country, is education so general - in no country, have the body of the people such a knowledge of the rights of men and the principles of government. This knowledge, joined with a keen sense of liberty and a watchful jealousy, will guard our constitutions and awaken the people to an instantaneous resistance of encroachments. — Noah Webster

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. — Noah Webster

The foundation of all free government and all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth. Young persons must not only be furnished with knowledge, but they must be accustomed to subordination and subjected to the authority and influence of good principles. It will avail little that youths are made to understand truth and correct principles, unless they are accustomed to submit to be governed by them. — Noah Webster

Whether you reed or rite, accustom yourselves to stand at a high desk — Noah Webster

But the origin of the American Republic is distinguished by peculiar circumstances. Other nations have been driven together by fear and necessity-the governments have generally been the result of a single man's observations; or the offspring of particular interests. In the formation of our constitution, the wisdom of all ages is collected-the legislators of antiquity are consulted-as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. In short, it is an empire of reason. — Noah Webster

It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country. — Noah Webster

The American states have gone far in assisting the progress of truth; but they have stopped short of perfection. They ought to have given every honest citizen an equal right to enjoy his religion and an equal title to all civil emoluments, without obliging him to tell his religion. Every interference of the civil power in regulating opinion, is an impious attempt to take the business of the Deity out of his own hands; and every preference given to any religious denomination, is so far slavery and bigotry. — Noah Webster

But when thou findest sensibility of heart, joined with softness of manners, an accomplished mind, and religion, united with sweetness of temper, modest deportment, and a love of domestic life; such is the woman who will divide the sorrows and double the joys of thy life. Take her to thyself; she is worthy to be thy nearest friend, thy companion, the wife of thy bosom. — Noah Webster

In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected-the legislators of antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason. — Noah Webster

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

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. — Noah Webster

Knowledge, learning, talents are not necessarily connected with sound moral and political principles ... And eminent abilities, accompanied with depravity of heart, render the possessor tenfold more dangerous in a community. — Noah Webster

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. But if we had no divine instruction on the subject, our own interest would demand of us a strict observance of the principle of these injunctions ... — Noah Webster

In the formation of such a government, it is not only the right, but the indispensable duty of every citizen to examine the principles of it, to compare them with the principles of other governments, with a constant eye to our particular situation and circumstances, and thus endeavor to foresee the future operations of our own system, and its effects upon human happiness. Convinced of this truth, I have no apology to offer for the following remarks, but an earnest desire to be useful to my country. — Noah Webster