Moral Virtues Quotes

• Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.

  Samuel Adams

  Law, Government, People

  The Advertiser, 1748.

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  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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• Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can exist apart from religious principle.

  George Washington

  Religious, Truth, Freedom

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• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

  John Adams

  Religious, Revenge, Passion

  John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.229

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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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• Without Virtue there can be no liberty

  Benjamin Rush

  Freedom, Liberty, Morality

  Benjamin Rush (1806). “Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical ...”, p.8

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• The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.

  Benjamin Rush

  Bible, God, Religious

  Benjamin Rush (1806). “Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical ...”, p.8

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• Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Years, People, Needs

  Letter to the Abbés Chalut and Arnaud, April 17, 1787.

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• Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Freedom, Character, People

  Benjamin Franklin (1840). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published; with Notes and a Life of the Author”, p.297

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• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people... it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  John Quincy Adams

  Religious, Business, 4th Of July

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• Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

  C. S. Lewis

  Courage, Army, Bravery

  In Cyril Connolly 'The Unquiet Grave' (1944) ch. 31

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• [I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

  John Adams

  Liberty, Foundation, Principles

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.401

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• 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

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  John Quincy Adams (1848). “Letters of John Quincy Adams, to His Son, on the Bible and Its Teachings”, p.23

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• Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits . . . 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

  Heart, Law, Liberty

  Fisher Ames (1835). “The influences of democracy on liberty, property, and the happiness of society, considered”, p.138

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• To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Leadership, Education, Business

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• 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

  Education, Wisdom, Religious

  Noah Webster, George Washington (1806). “Elements of useful knowledge: containing a historical and geographical account of the United States”, p.217

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• To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage, or of principle.

  Confucius

  Love, Inspirational, Funny

  Confucius (2013). “Confucian Analects, The Great Learning & The Doctrine of the Mean”, p.154, Courier Corporation

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• Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

  Edmund Burke

  Men, Liberty, Moral

  Edmund Burke (1828). “The Beauties of Burke: Consisting of Selections from His Works”, p.86

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• Courage is the form of every virtue at the testing point.

  Lynn G. Robbins

  Courage, Bravery, Heroic

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• It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people.

  Richard Henry Lee

  Government, People, Liberty

  Richard Henry Lee (1825). “Memoir of the Life of Richard H. Lee, and His Correspondence with the Most Distinguished Men in America and Europe”, p.70

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• Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

  Aristotle

  Courage, Peace, Bravery

  "Nichomachean Ethics". Book by Aristotle, Book II, c. 325 BC.

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• Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute to patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness - these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.

  George Washington

  Religious, Business, Men

  "George Washington’s Farewell Address". "The Life of George Washington. Special Edition for Schools", ed. Robert Faulkner and Paul Carrese, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, oll.libertyfund.org. 2000.

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• [V]irtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

  George Washington

  Spring, Government, Liberty

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.308

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• Let us with Caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.

  George Washington

  Religious, Godly, Indulge In

  George Washington, United States. President (1789-1797 : Washington) (1847). “Washington's Farewell Address to the People of the United States of America: Published in September, 1796”, p.9

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• Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

  Edmund Burke

  Wise, Passion, Men

  Letter to a Member of the National Assembly, 1791.

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