Quotes from our Heroes

Abraham Lincoln

 "Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality."
"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.""Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."
"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it."

Abigail Adams

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence."
“If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.”
"I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic."

Benjamin Franklin

"The idea of what is true merit should also be often presented to youth, explained and impressed on their minds, as consisting in an inclination joined with an ability to serve mankind, one's country, friends and family; which ability is (with the blessing of God) to be acquired or greatly increased by true learning; and should indeed be the great aim and end of all learning." "I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.... I think also, that general virtue is more probably to be expected and obtained from the education of youth, than from the exhortations of adult persons; bad habits and vices of the mind being, like diseases of the body, more easily prevented [in youth] than cured [in adults]. I think, moreover, that talents for the education of youth are the gift God; and that he on whom they are bestowed, whenever a way is opened for the use of them, is as strongly called as if he heard a voice from heaven…."

George Washington

"A primary object ... should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing ... than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?" "The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it." "We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience."

Henry Adams

"Teachers touch eternity. They never know where their influence stops." "They know enough who know how to learn."

James Monroe

"Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties." "What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?" "A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

Samuel Adams

"If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security."


Thomas Jefferson

"An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second." "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government;... whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."