Quotes by Presidents
“The Bible is the sheet-anchor of our liberties.”
Ulysses S. Grant
“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
George Washington
“I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make better citizens, better fathers, better husbands… the Bible makes the best people in the world.”
Thomas Jefferson
“My custom is to read four or five chapters of the Bible every morning immediately after rising… It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day… It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.”
John Quincy Adams
“Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.”
Ronald Reagan
“I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I ask every man and woman in this audience that from this day on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great Book (the Bible).”
Woodrow Wilson
“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 teaching 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 end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state.”
Harry S. Truman
“The study of the Bible is a post-graduate course in the richest library of human experience.”
Herbert Hoover.
“The best gift God has given to man…”
Abraham Lincoln said of the Bible
“I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good of the Savior of the world is communicated to us through the Book.”
Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, 1856-1924
“When you have read the Bible, you know it is the word of God, because it is the key to your heart, your own happiness, and your own duty.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, 1858-1919
“There is a book worth all other books which were ever printed.”
Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States
“Of the many influences that have shaped the United States into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said to be more fundamental and enduring than the Bible.
President George Washington, First President of the United States
With malice toward none; with charity for all.
— Abraham Lincoln
“In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.”
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, 1809-1865
Don’t listen to friends contrary to God;s word
Andrew Johnson (Abraham Lincoln’s choice for Vice-President) said “I do believe in Almighty God! And I believe also in the Bible…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 inscribed for our motto: “Liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,” and exclaim, Christ first, our country next!”
John Savage, “The Life and Public Services of Andrew Johnson” pp. 247, 274
Page 334
Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence) has his own words on his tombstone: “Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it temporal punishments or burdens…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion.
No men shall…suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively.
Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Life that that these people are to be free.
The precepts of philosophy and of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. Jesus pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the regions of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.”
William Linn, “The Life of Thomas Jefferson” p. 265
Page 333
President Abraham Lincoln issued a historic day of fasting and prayer on March 30, 1863 and he began by saying, “Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation: And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord…”
5 days after the Civil War had ended, Abraham Lincoln went to Ford’s theatre with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. She recalled his last words as they sat there: ” He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem. And with the words half spoken on his tongue, the bullet of the assassin entered the brain, and the soul of the great and good President was carried by the angels to the New Jerusalem above”
March 30, 1863. James D. Richardson “A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents” Vol. 6, p. 164.
April 14, 1865. The Last Words of President Lincoln As Recalled By His Wife. Minor. Lincoln. p. 52
The meaning of the Bible must be known and understood if it is to make a difference in our lives, and I urge all Americans to read and study the Scriptures. The rewards of such efforts will help preserve our heritage of freedom and signal the message of liberty to people in all lands.
— Ronald Reagan
I have made it a practice every year for several years to read through the Bible.
— John Adams
Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally impossible for us to figure what life would be if those teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards towards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves.
— Theodore Roosevelt
So great is my veneration of 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.
— John Adams
America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the Holy Scriptures.
— Woodrow Wilson
The Bible is a book in comparison with which all others in my eyes are of minor importance; and which in all my perplexities and distresses has never failed to give me light and strength.
— Robert E. Lee
President Franklin D. Roosevelt got tired of smiling that big smile and saying the usual things at all those White House receptions. So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was paying attention to what he was saying. As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big smile and said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” People would automatically respond with comments such as “How lovely!” or “Just continue with your great work!” Nobody listened to what he was saying, except one foreign diplomat. When the president said, “I murdered my grandmother this morning,” the diplomat responded softly, “I’m sure she had it coming to her.”
James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
“The Bible is the sheet-anchor of our liberties.”
Ulysses S. Grant
Jeremiah 2:11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
Woodrow Wilson
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.