This is a collection of assorted quotations mostly from famous Americans, past and present, about the Bible.
***
The morality of the Bible must continue to be the basis of our government. There is no other foundation for free institutions.
John McLean (1785-1861), U.S. Congressman, Postmaster General, and Supreme Court Justice. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
***
Elias Boudinot – American Founding Father
Were you to ask me to recommend the most valuable book in the world, I should fix on the Bible as the most instructive, both to the wise and ignorant. Were you to ask me for one [book], affording the most rational and pleasing entertainment to the inquiring mind, I should repeat, it is the Bible: and should you renew the inquiry, for the best philosophy, or the most interesting history, I should still urge you to look into your Bible. I would make it, in short, the Alpha and Omega of knowledge.
***
For nearly half a century have I anxiously and critically studied that invaluable treasure [the Bible]; and I still scarcely ever take it up, that I do not find something new – that I do not receive some valuable addition to my stock of knowledge; or perceive some instructive fact, never observed before.
Elias Boudinot (1740-1821), American lawyer, statesman, and founding father; a president of the Continental Congress. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
***
Benjamin Rush – American Founding Father
The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state, than any other book in the world.
***
By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. . . . It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published.
Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), American physician, politician, social reformer, educator and humanitarian; a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
***
[The Bible] is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed.
Patrick Henry (1736-1799), American attorney, politician, and orator for independence. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
Patrick Henry was also the first governor of Virginia and a founding father of America. He’s the one who said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
***
In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), American military officer. Source: Halley’s Bible Handbook.
In the American Civil War, both sides held to the same Lord and Bible. In today’s American division, only one side still holds to that Lord and Bible, while the other side resists that Lord and the Bible.
***
It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.
Horace Greeley (1811-1872), American newspaper editor. Source: Halley’s Bible Handbook.
Greeley is remembered more for saying, “Go west, young man,” than for this quote – but this one’s more timeless.
***
Even Time Magazine in 2007 Was Saying…
Simply put, the Bible is the most influential book ever written. – Time magazine, March 22, 2007
Source: The Bible in America by Steve Green and Todd Hillard, DustJacket Press, 2013.
Why would people want to completely disregard a book like that – especially on important public policy discussions?
***
Reagan and the Bible
Ronald Reagan spoke of the Bible in the same reverent and devoted way that has been traditional for US presidents since George Washington…until recently. This is not say that the country only recently began to fall away from Him – just that God has been patient about our apostasy, giving us more than ample time to repent. He’s been warning us all along.
Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of America into a distinctive Nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible. Deep religious beliefs stemming from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible…laid the foundation for the spirit of nationhood that was to develop in later decades. The Bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the Founding Fathers’ abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the individual, rights which they found implicit in the Bible’s teachings of the inherent worth and dignity of each individual. (1)
***
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face. (2)
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th president of the United States. Sources: (1) U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014. (2) BrainyQuote.com
***
Teddy Roosevelt Prophesied the Current American Condition
Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud, of which our people are proud, almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible. . . . Among the very greatest men a disproportionately large number have been diligent and close students of the Bible at first hand.
***
The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life, that it would be literally – I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally – impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th president of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
Notice that Roosevelt said that if “the teachings of the Bible” were removed from “our whole civic and social life,” then “We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals.” The Bible has most certainly been removed from “our whole civic and social life.” Even churches seldom study it anymore. And therefore, we have, as a consequence just as Teddy said, lost almost all the standards by which his generation judged both public and private morals. In fact, the problem has gone beyond morals into the very basics of human perception. We’ve actually been reduced to a condition in which a Supreme Court justice has to consult a biologist in order to find out what a woman is.
***
John Adams and Margaret Atwood on Different Frequencies
Margaret Atwood, in her book A Handmaid’s Tale, and John Adams below, both imagine a nation governed by the Bible – the former foreseeing a dystopia, the latter a utopia.
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!…What a Utopia; what a Paradise would this region be!
John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
The Bible Margaret Atwood was despising was the same Bible John Adams was extolling. (If you’re unfamiliar with Atwood’s book The Handmaid’s Tale or the tv series spawned from it, you don’t have to read or watch either; just do an internet search on the title and you’ll quick see its premise – that pursuit of biblical morality leads to a dystopia.)
Can the differences between Atwood and Adams be attributed to one being female and the other male? I don’t think so, because Abigail Adams’ view was quite consistent with John’s. She often quoted the Bible in her letters to John, saying things like, “The Scriptures tell us righteousness, not iniquity, exalteth a nation.” (Source: Proverbs Are The Best Policy: Folk Wisdom and American Politics by Wolfgang Mieder, Utah State University Press, 2005. Therefore, I take it that the difference is found the fact that Margaret Atwood thinks like a 20th-21st century North American while John and Abigail Adams thought like 18th-19th century North Americans.
***
Woodrow Wilson Could Not Be President Today
Strangely, America still considers itself righteous – but not with the Bible as its source for that righteousness.
America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), 28th president of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
***
Franklin Roosevelt’s Statement on
the 400th Anniversary of the English Bible
Here are excerpts from his 1935 statement, with link to the full text below.
The four hundredth anniversary of the printing of the first English Bible is an event of great significance. It challenges the reverent attention of English-speaking peoples the world over…this greatest of books…
In the formative days of the Republic the directing influence of the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident…
We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic. ..
Where we have been truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity; where it has been to us as the words of a book that is sealed, we have faltered in our way, lost our range finders and found our progress checked. It is well that we observe this anniversary of the first publishing of our English Bible. The time is propitious to place a fresh emphasis upon its place and worth in the economy of our life as a people. As literature, as a book that contains a system of ethics, of moral and religious principles, it stands unique and alone. I commend its thoughtful and reverent reading to all our people. Its refining and elevating influence is indispensable to our most cherished hopes and ideals.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd president of the United States, in statement on the Four Hundredth Anniversary of the Printing of the English Bible; October 6, 1935. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014. Full text of the statement is at The American Presidency Project. (emphasis added)
***
US President: “Read your Bibles!”
It wasn’t that long ago that a US President was calling the entire nation to read the Bible.
To the end that we may bear more earnest witness to our gratitude to Almighty God, I suggest a nationwide reading of the Holy Scriptures during the period from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas. Let every man of every creed go to his own version of the Scriptures for a renewed and strengthening contact with those eternal truths and majestic principles which have inspired such measure of true greatness as this nation has achieved.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd president of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014 and Proclamation 2629 – Thanksgiving Day 1944 at The American Presidency Project (University of California at Santa Barbara). (emphasis added)
***
President U. S. Grant Warned Us
The Bible is the anchor of our liberties.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), 18th president of the United States. Source: Halley’s Bible Handbook.
Well, that would explain a lot about current American views of the 1st and 2nd Amendments and the rest of the Bill of Rights.
***
What “Old Rough and Ready” Said about the Bible
The Bible is the best of books and I wish it were in the hands of everyone. . . . Especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young. It is the best school book in the world. . . . I would that all of our people were brought up under the influence of that Holy Book.
***
The Bible is…indispensable to the safety and permanence of our institutions; a free government cannot exist without religion and morals, and there cannot be morals without religion, nor religion without the Bible.
Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), 12th president of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
Taylor was a military hero before he was elected president. He earned his nickname by sharing the hardships of field duty with his men.
***
John Quincy Adams Couldn’t Say Enough about the Bible
The first, and almost the only holy book, deserving such universal recommendation, is the Bible.
***
No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible.
***
I have always endeavored to read it [the Bible] with the same spirit…which I now recommend to you: that is, with the intention and desire that it may contribute to my advancement in wisdom and virtue.
***
So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have for many years made it a practice to read through the Bible once every year…My custom is, to read four or five chapters every morning, immediately after rising from my bed. It employs about an hour of my time, and seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day.
***
You ask me what Bible I take as the standard of my faith?…Any Bible that I can read and understand.
***
With regard to the history contained in the Bible…”it is not so much praiseworthy to be acquainted with as it is shameful to be ignorant of it.”
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), sixth president of the United States. Sources: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Halley’s Bible Handbook, and Letters Of John Quincy Adams, To His Son, On The Bible And Its Teachings.
***
Dickens on Good Writing
The New Testament is the very best book that ever was or ever will be known in the world.
Charles Dickens (1812-1870), English writer and social critic. Source: Halley’s Bible Handbook
I learned about Charles Dickens in high school, but I don’t ever remember anyone teaching me that he said this. I wonder why not? Apart from any religious implications, it seems worthy of mention what one of the world’s best writers thought was the world’s best writing. Censorship is nothing new. And it is the essence of secularism.
***
America’s First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Speaks about the Bible
The Bible is the best of all Books, for it is the Word of God, and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it, and to regulate your life by its precepts.
John Jay (1745-1829), American statesman, co-author of The Federalist Papers; first Chief Justice of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
***
A Man Who Had a Way with Words Describes the Bible
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.
***
In selecting men for [government] office, let principle be your guide…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 [Exodus 18:21]…It is to the neglect of this rule of conduct in our citizens, that we must ascribe the multiplied frauds, breaches of trust, peculations [white-collar larceny] and embezzlements of public property which astonish even ourselves; which tarnish the character of our country; which disgrace a republican government.
Noah Webster (1758-1843), lexicographer, writer; called the “Father of American Scholarship and Education” and “Schoolmaster to America.” Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014.
***
Oh, to Have US Senators Speak This Way Today!
If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), United States senator. Source: Halley’s Bible Handbook
***
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on the Bible
I have examined all of the Bible as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened brains and my busy life would allow me. And the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I’ve seen, and such parts of it I can’t reconcile to my little philosophy I postpone for future investigation.
John Adams (1735-1826), second president of the United States, taken from his letter to Thomas Jefferson, Christmas Day, 1813. Source: The Bible in America by Steve Green and Todd Hillard, DustJacket Press, 2013, p. 17.
***
This Is the President Who Got Us through the Civil War
I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th president of the United States. Source: U-Turn: Restoring America to the Strength of its Roots by David Barton and George Barna, Frontline, 2014
***
US Supreme Court Supports Christianity and the Bible
In 1844, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Vidal v. Girard’s Executors. Here are some excerpts from the Court’s decision, written by Justice Joseph Story. (The school in view was one established for orphans by private endowment but under the administrative control of the city of Philadelphia.)
So that we are compelled to admit that although Christianity be a part of the common law of the state, yet it is so in this qualified sense, that its divine origin and truth are admitted, and therefore it is not to be maliciously and openly reviled and blasphemed against, to the annoyance of believers or the injury of the public.
…
Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college — its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? What is there to prevent a work, not sectarian, upon the general evidences of Christianity, from being read and taught in the college by lay teachers?
…
Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament? Where are benevolence, the love of truth, sobriety, and industry, so powerfully and irresistibly inculcated as in the sacred volume?
Source: Text of US Supreme Court, Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, 43 U.S. 127 (1844), emphasis added. (Background on the case)
Oh, and did I mention that the court’s decision in this case was unanimous?
***
This long quote from Christopher Columbus goes a long way toward explaining why respect and appreciation for him has become so politically incorrect in our time.
It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel his hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me…There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because He comforted me with rays of marvelous inspiration from the Holy Scriptures…I said that I would state my reasons: I hold alone to the sacred and Holy Scriptures, and to the interpretations of prophecy given by certain devout persons…
I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prohesied…No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Saviour, if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service. The working out of all things has been assigned to each person by the Lord, but it all happens according to His sovereign will even though he gives advice. He lacks nothing that it is in the power of men to give Him. Oh, what a gracious Lord, who desires that people should perform for Him those things which He holds Himself responsible! Day and night, moment by moment, everyone should express the most devoted gratitude to Him.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), Italian explorer and discoverer of the Americas, on the role of the Bible in his explorations and discoveries, (bold print added). Source: The Bible in America by Steve Green and Todd Hillard, DustJacket Press, 2013, pages 18 and 27.
***
That Explains a Lot, Cal!
The foundations of our society and 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 (1872-1933), 30th president of the United States, emphasis added. Source: The Bible in America by Steve Green and Todd Hillard, DustJacket Press, 2013.
Coolidge’s point is practically identical in sentiment to one made by the second US president, John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Adams’ also said, “Human passions unbridled by morality and religion would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.”
These two men are telling us clearly why things are not working in America right now.
Both of Adams’ quotes can be found at Quotations about Righteousness.
***
America at its founding was biblically literate – thoroughly so.
The Bible and bible-based texts were ubiquitous in elementary and secondary education, and they were of special importance to literacy education.
Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers by Daniel L. Dreisbach, Oxford University Press, 2017, page 8
When studied in higher education today, the Bible is typically reserved for specialty courses on religion and theology, unlike eighteenth-century colleges where the Bible was a key textbook in many courses in the curriculum. The Bible was not merely the literature of the unlearned and unsophisticated, as some scholars view it today.
Again, it is difficult to overstate the place of the Bible in the lives and culture of eighteenth-century Americans.
Modern America, by comparison to colonial America, is biblically illiterate. The most fundamental way to change this is to read it more – daily! – and to do so as individuals and families – beginning with the men.
***
These are things President Eisenhower said about the Bible on various occasions.
The purpose of a devout and united people was set forth in the pages of the Bible…(1) to live in freedom (2) to work in a prosperous land…and (3) to obey the commandments of God…This biblical story of the Promised land inspired the founders of America. It continues to inspire us…
***
The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words. In no other book is there such a collection of inspired wisdom, reality, and hope.
***
In the highest sense the Bible is to us the unique repository of eternal spiritual truths.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th president of the United States and Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II.
After Eisenhower, strong commendations of the Bible from US presidents and other dignitaries become harder to find. Up until Eisenhower, they had been consistently strong since George Washington. This reflects the trajectory of the nation, for it was in the post-WW II period that the US became the most powerful nation in the world. And, as the Master taught us, pride goeth before a fall.
***
“I know that God has given us the Scriptures. Decide what you will, my lord, but I shall stick with them.”
John Frith (1503-1533), English Protestant priest, and writer
John Frith was a martyr for Christ during the Protestant Reformation. He was a colleague of noted Bible translator and fellow martyr William Tyndale. Frith and Tyndale believed that the Bible carried more authority than any church power. When called upon to recant so that he would not be burned at the stake, Frith with to the Roman Catholic Cardinal Thomas Wolsey with these words.
***
What the Inventor of the Printing Press Said about the Bible
It is only a press, but a press from which will flow a constant stream…Through it, God will spread His Word. A spring of truth will flow from it. Like a new star it will scatter the darkness of ignorance and cause an unknown light to shine for all.
Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1468), inventor of the movable-type printing press (The Bible was one of the first things he printed and a number of his Bibles, though many only in partial form, remain to this day)
As the printing press has allowed the Bible to “shine like a new star that scatters the darkness of ignorance,” may the internet allow it to shine even brighter.
***
“That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests.”
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), 7th president of the United States
Jackson is, of course, referring to the Bible. Because he was not a preacher but rather a politician, he was not making this statement in the hope that his audience would believe it, but rather because he knew his audience already believed it. This early American belief about the Bible goes a long way toward explaining why modern America has become so restless.
***
No Wonder John Adams Was So Smart
“The Scriptures tell us righteousness exalteth a Nation.”-
Abigail Adams (1744-1818), wife of the second president of United States (John Adams) and mother of the sixth president of the United States (John Quincy Adams). Source: Steven Andrew.
This is a quotation of Proverbs 14:34. Abigail Adams was a minister’s daughter.
***
“A simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Luther was a Roman Catholic priest who thought the Bible should be given more authority than anyone preaching it.
***
How One of History’s Great Scientists
Described the Historical Reliability of the Bible
There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history.
Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and more.
The word “profane” in this context means what we mean by “secular” or “non-religious.” You could even substitute “typical” or “regular” for “profane” in this sentence. In other words, while most academics today think of the Bible as less historically reliable than a history book, Newton saw it the other way around. But it’s not necessary for people to adopt Newton’s view; they just need to stop accepting the lie that the Bible is not historically reliable.
***
In the 1940’s, New Testaments with the following inscription were printed and distributed to US soldiers.
To the Armed Forces:
As Commander-in-Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.
Very sincerely yours,
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), 32nd president of the United States
(signed)
Franklin D. Roosevelt
***
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th president of the United States
And the gap between the two has widened immeasurably since then!
***
What a prophetic word by Harry Truman!
The most important business in this Nation–or any other nation, for that matter-is raising and training children. If those children have the proper environment at home, and educationally, very, very few of them ever turn out wrong. I don’t think we put enough stress on the necessity of implanting in the child’s mind the moral code under which we live.
The fundamental basis of this Nation’s law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings which we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days.
If we don’t have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), 33rd president of the United States, in a 1950 address to the Attorney General’s Conference on Law Enforcement Problems (source)
***
“I defy the Pope and all his laws, if God spare my life, I will make a boy that driveth the plough know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
William Tyndale (1494-1536), the first to translate the Greek New Testament into English and thus make the Bible accessible to English-speaking people
At the beginning of the Reformation, it was not legal to own an English Bible. All Bibles were in Latin because the prevailing view was that only the highly-educated were able to properly interpret it. By contrast, the biblical scholar William Tyndale thought everyone could and should read the Bible and therefore that it should be translated into English and distributed widely.
The quote above was Tyndale’s response to a fellow English clergyman who said to him, in claiming it was safer to have the pope read the Bible and tell people what it said, “We had better be without God’s laws than the Pope’s.”
***
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.
George Washington (1732-1799), 1st president of the United States
The Duty of a Man 