Moral Decay Quotes

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

John Adams

Bible, God, Religious

John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

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If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Ronald Reagan

Inspirational, God, Country

Remarks at a Dallas Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, delivered 23 August 1984 at Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX

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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

Spiritual, Political, Liberty

"Letter: General Douglas MacArthur's 1951 speech is more appropriate in today's America". General Douglas MacArthur's speech, www.mlive.com. 1951.

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A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.

Amos Bronson Alcott

Fall, Government, Mind Your Own Business

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War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

John Stuart Mill

Military, War, Patriotic

"The Contest in America", Fraser's Magazine, February 1862.

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There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Country, Philosophical, Religion

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Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license.

Russell Kirk

Kings, Men, Self

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Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation's moral decay.

Ann Coulter

Soccer, Decay, Growing

"America’s Favorite National Pastime: Hating Soccer". www.anncoulter.com. June 25, 2014.

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We've come a long way in our thinking, but also in our moral decay. I can't imagine Dr. King watching the 'Real Housewives' or 'Jersey Shore.'

Samuel L. Jackson

Kings, Real, Thinking

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I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. What power wouldn't I trade for a little more time with my family? What price wouldn't I pay for an evening with friends? It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime.

Lee Atwater

Country, Eye, Ambition

Life Interview, January 1991.

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That government is best which governs the least, so taught the courageous founders of this nation. This simple declaration is diametrically opposed to the all too common philosophy that the government should protect and support one from the cradle to the grave. The policy of the Founding Fathers has made our people and our nation strong. The opposite leads inevitably to moral decay.

Ezra Taft Benson

Courage, Strong, Father

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If movies are causing moral decay, then crime ought to be going up, but crime is going down.

Jack Valenti

Movie, Decay, Moral

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With each shimmy, the bugle beads on their scandalously revealing costumes swung and shook. It was the sort of display Evie knew her mother would have found appalling—an example of the moral decay of the young generation. It was sexual and dangerous and thrilling, and Evie wanted more of it.

Libba Bray

Mother, Young Generation, Example

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Incrementalism: In the first generation, the goal of the movement was wholesale social and cultural transformation. Small, incremental victories were too little given the magnitude of America's moral decay. Since 1988, the new leaders have recognized that incrementalism is the surest path to success in political competition. The current movement is committed to securing small victories now, postponing for the long-term more fundamental changes in society and politics.

Kenneth D. Wald

America, Goal, Long

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Even the weather page is in a state of moral decay. What?s wrong with red, white and blue, USA Today? This rainbow weather map is just another example of the homometerological agenda.

Stephen Colbert

Blue, Weather, Usa

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I feel about Photoshop the way some people feel about abortion. It is appalling and a tragic reflection on the moral decay of our society…unless I need it, in which case, everybody be cool.

Tina Fey

Reflection, People, Abortion

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I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty. It took a deadly illness to put me eye to eye with that truth, but it is a truth that the country, caught up in its ruthless ambitions and moral decay, can learn on my dime. I don't know who will lead us through the '90s, but they must be made to speak to this spiritual vacuum at the heart of American society, this tumor of the soul.

Lee Atwater

Country, Spiritual, Eye

Life Interview, January 1991.

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