QUOTES FROM PRESIDENTS

To use in Family Discussions

The following are quotes from some of our Presidents. Each one is powerful and worth thinking about. They are available to you to use during Discussion Time at your family evening meal. Choose a quote to read and ask each one in the family to expound on it and share how it relates to us today. If you have little children, you can make it simpler and give them understanding.

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion… reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” ~ George Washington

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” ~ George Washington

“But a constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever.” ~ John Adams

“Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.” ~ John Adams

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

“Statesmen… may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.” ~ John Adams

“When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." ~ John Quincy Adams

“The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.”
~ John Quincy Adams

“All who profess Christianity believe in a Savior, and that by and through Him we must be saved.” ~ Andrew Jackson

“All history has proved that only those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
~Abraham Lincoln

“That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it." ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Let us look forward to the time when we can take the flag of our country and nail it below the Cross, and there let it wave as it waved in the olden times, and let us gather around it and inscribe for our motto: ‘Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,’ and exclaim: Christ first, our country next.” ~ Andrew Johnson

“Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization and to this we must look as our guide in the future.” ~ Ulysses S Grant

"Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law.” ~ William McKinley

“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

“In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at, or ignored their Christian duties, is a community on the rapid down-grade.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“The Bible… is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and need of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation.” ~ Woodrow Wilson

“Without God the world would be a maze without a clue.” ~ Woodrow Wilson

“I have always believed in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, whereby they have become the expression to man of the Word and Will of God. “ ~ Warren Harding

“It is my conviction that the fundamental trouble with the people of the United States is that they have gotten too far away from Almighty God.” ~ Warren Hardin

“We do not need more intellectual power; we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen. If the foundation be firm, the foundation will stand.” ~ Calvin Coolidge

“The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.” ~ Calvin Coolidge

“Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution.” ~ Herbert Hoover

"A splendid storehouse of integrity and freedom has been bequeathed to us by our forefathers. In this day of confusion, of peril to liberty, our high duty is to see that this storehouse is not robbed of its contents." ~ Herbert Hoover

“The basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and S. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a… government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State!” ~ Harry S. Truman

“Our government makes no sense unless it is founded on a deeply felt religious faith.”
~ Dwight Eisenhower

“Today, prayer is still a powerful force in America, and our faith in God is a mighty source of strength. Our Pledge of Allegiance states that we are ‘one nation under God,’ and our currency bears the motto, ‘In God we Trust.’ The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design, and we abandon them at our peril.” ~ Ronald Reagan

“The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom, and open-mindedness. Question: Isn’t the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives.”
~ Ronald Reagan

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” ~ Ronald Reagan

“The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas--a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.” ~ Ronald Reagan

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are... I'm from the government and I'm here to help.” ~ Ronald Reagan