--- George Washington

  "We must realize that no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

--- Ronald Reagan

  "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of people that these liberties are the gift of God?"

--- Thomas Jefferson

 "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right."

---Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

  "We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government: upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

--- James Madison

 "I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire cannot rise without His aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that, 'except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.'"

--- Benjamin Franklin, at the Constitutional Convention, June 28, 1787

  "A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader."

---Samuel Adams

 "We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come."

--- Samuel Adams, as he signed the Declaration of Independence

"Our Fathers were brought up by their veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles within the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions -- civil, political, or literary."

--- Daniel Webster

 "To the distinguished character of a Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of a Christian."

--- George Washington

"A patriot without religions is as great a paradox as an honest man without the fear of God...The scriptures tell us 'righteousness exalts a nation.'"

--- Abigail Adams

 "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

--- John Quincy Adams

"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped...As to Jesus of Nazareth...I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, is the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see."

---Benjamin Franklin

 "No power over the freedom of religion...[is] delegated to the United States by the Constitution."

---Thomas Jefferson

"Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

---Leviticus 25:10, inscribed on the Liberty Bell

 "We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." 

---Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation

"Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

---George Washington, in his farewell address

 "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

---Benjamin Franklin

"There never was a good war or a bad peace."

---Benjamin Franklin

 "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

---Benjamin Franklin, At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

---John Adams, in a Letter to wife Abigail, July 3, 1776

 "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

---Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Convention, March, 1775

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."

---Thomas Jefferson

"Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens."

---Daniel Webster

 "Thank God! I--I also--am an American!"

---Daniel Webster

"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it."

---Daniel Webster

 "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free."

---Abraham Lincoln, Speech, June 16, 1858

"Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it."

---Abraham Lincoln, Address, New York City, Feb. 21, 1859

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that's sleeping in the unplowed ground."

---Lyndon Baines Johnson

 "America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses."

---Woodrow Wilson

"In the field of world policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor."

---Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 "I would rather see the United States respected than loved by other nations."

---Henry Cabot Lodge

"America.... It is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen, but where they happen all the time."

---Thomas Wolfe

 "Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right."

---Carl Schurz

  "America ... a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose."

---Herbert Hoover

  "For the American people are a very generous people and will forgive almost any weakness, with the possible exception of stupidity."

---Will Rogers

  "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."

---Nathan Hale

  "Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country."

---Calvin Coolidge