Benjamin Rush Quotes

Mothers and schools plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exists in the world.

In such a performance you may lay the foundation of national happiness only in religion, not by leaving it doubtful "whether morals can exist without it," but by asserting that without religion morals are the effects of causes as purely physical as pleasant breezes and fruitful seasons.

The American war is over; but this far from being the case with the American revolution. On the contrary, nothing but the first act of the drama is closed. It remains yet to establish and perfect our new forms of government, and to prepare the principles, morals, and manners of our citizens for these forms of government after they are established and brought to perfection.

We have not only multiplied diseases, but we have made them more fatal.

Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.

The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.

Upon my return from the army to Baltimore in the winter of 1777, I sat next to John Adams in Congress, and upon my whispering to him and asking him if he thought we should succeed in our struggle with Great Britain, he answered me, "Yes-if we fear God and repent of our sins."

Let the children ... be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education.

Let us show the world that a difference of opinion upon medical subjects is not incompatible with medical friendships; and in so doing, let us throw the whole odium of the hostility of physicians to each other upon their competition for business and money.

A belief in God's universal love to all his creatures, and that he will finally restore all of them that are miserable to happiness, is a polar truth ... It establishes the equality of [humanity] ...

Mirth, and even cheerfulness, when employed as remedies in low spirits, are like hot water to a frozen limb.

Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.

I shall be better satisfied if the same can be said of me as was said of the prophet of old, "That I walked in the fear of the Lord, and begat sons and daughters" [Genesis 5:22], than if it were inscribed on my tombstone that I governed the councils or commanded the arms of the whole continent of America.

Christianity is the only true and perfect religion ...

Without Virtue there can be no liberty

The business of education has lay[ed] the foundations for nurseries of wise and good men, to adapt our modes of teaching to the peculiar form of our government ... He must be taught to love his fellow creatures in every part of the world, but he must cherish with a more intense and peculiar affection the citizens of Pennsylvania and of the United States.

Terror acts powerfully upon the body, through the medium of the mind, and should be employed in the cure of madness.

The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution.

The art of healing is like an unroofed temple, uncovered at the top and cracked at the foundation.

I grant this mode of secluding boys from the intercourse of private families has a tendency to make them scholars, but our business is to make them men, citizens, and Christians. The vices of young people are generally learned from each other. The vices of adults seldom infect them. By separating them from each other, therefore, in their hours of relaxation from study, we secure their morals from a principal source of corruption, while we improve their manners by subjecting them to those restraints which the difference of age and sex naturally produce in private families.

As the War Office of the United States was established in a time of peace, it is equally reasonable that a Peace Office should be established in a time of War.

By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.

Some talked,some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all

Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them ...

Mania's premonitory signs are unusual acts of extravagance, manifested by the purchase of houses, and certain expensive and unnecessary articles of furniture.

Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property. Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even forget them when the welfare of his country requires it.

A Christian cannot fail of being a republican.

If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into all the world would have been unnecessary. The perfect morality of the gospel rests upon the doctrine which, though often controverted has never been refuted: I mean the vicarious life and death of the Son of God.

Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.

Liberty without virtue would be no blessing to us.

Beer is a wholesome liquor ... it abounds with nourishment

We profess to be republicans, and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism.

Scandal dies sooner of itself, than we could kill it.

Were I disposed to consider the comparative merit of each of them [facts or theories in medical practice], I should derive most of the evils of medicine from supposed facts, and ascribe all the remedies which have been uniformly and extensively useful, to such theories as are true. Facts are combined and rendered useful only by means of theories, and the more disposed men are to reason, the more minute and extensive they become in their observations