Quotes by Noah Webster

About Noah Webster:

Noah Webster, Jr. was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." His blue-backed speller books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read, secularizing their education. According to Ellis (1979) he gave Americans "a secular catechism to the nation-state."
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.

Noah Webster

In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character.

Noah Webster

The reasonableness of the command to obey parents is clear to children, even when quite young.

Noah Webster

The foundation of all free government and all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth. Young persons must not only be furnished with knowledge, but they must be accustomed to subordination and subjected to the authority a...

Noah Webster

Unaffected modesty is the sweetest charm of female excellence, the richest gem in the diadem of her honor.

Noah Webster

Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety. A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the...

Noah Webster

[I]f the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to exe...

Noah Webster

There iz no alternativ. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under the influence of r...

Noah Webster

In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed.

Noah Webster

No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

Noah Webster

The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions.

Noah Webster

When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country.

Noah Webster

It is the sincere desire of the writer that our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the bible, particularly the New Testament or the Christian religion.

Noah Webster

The ecclesiastical establishments of Europe which serve to support tyrannical governments are not the Christian religion but abuses and corruptions of it.

Noah Webster

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.

Noah Webster

Author Bio

  • NameNoah Webster
  • Descriptionlexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, writer, editor and author
  • AliasesNoah Webster, Jr.
  • BornOctober 16, 1758
  • DiedMay 28, 1843
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionLexicographer; Linguist; Journalist; Politician