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Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground

Noah Webster

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Noah Webster
Age: 84 †
Born: 1758
Born: October 16
Died: 1843
Died: May 28
Journalist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Politician
Writer
Noah Webster
Jr.
Learned
Affection
Dictionary
Humanity
Bases
Joys
Language
Lows
Broads
Needs
Ground
Broad
Work
Close
Makers
Long
Taste
Construction
Arising
Something
Generations
Ties
Affections
Joy
Abstract
Tastes

More quotes by Noah Webster

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Language is the expression of ideas, and if the people of one country cannot preserve an identity of ideas they cannot retain an identity of language.
Noah Webster
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It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.
Noah Webster
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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
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The liberty of the press, trial by jury, the Habeas Corpus Writ, even Magna Carta itself, although justly deemed the paladia of freedom, are all inferior considerations, when compared with the general distribution of real property among every class of people.
Noah Webster
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Any system of education...which limits instruction to the arts and sciences and rejects the aids of religion in forming the characters of citizens, is essentially defective.
Noah Webster
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The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws . . . The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and his Apostles . . . This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.
Noah Webster
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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
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Let the people have property and they will have power - a power that will forever be exerted to prevent the restriction of the press, the abolition of trial by jury, or the abridgment of any other privilege.
Noah Webster
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Whenever a man is known to seek promotion by intrigue, by temporizing, or by resorting to the haunts of vulgarity and vice for support, it may be inferred, with moral certainty, that he is not a man of real respectability, nor is he entitled to public confidence.
Noah Webster
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A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional for they will possess the power, and jealousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them unjust and oppressive.
Noah Webster
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In some countries the common people are not permitted to read the Bible at all. In ours, it is as common as a newspaper and in schools is read with nearly the same degree of respect.
Noah Webster
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Where will you find any code of laws among civilized men in which the commands and prohibitions are not founded on Christian principles? I need not specify the prohibition of murder, robbery, theft, trespass.
Noah Webster
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A national language is a band of national union.
Noah Webster
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As a general rule, it may be affirmed that the man who never intrigues for office may be most safely entrusted with office...Such a man cannot desire promotion unless he received it from the respectable part of the community, for he considers no other promotion to be honorable.
Noah Webster
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In the formation of our constitution the wisdom of all ages is collected-the legislators of antiquity are consulted, as well as the opinions and interests of the millions who are concerned. It short, it is an empire of reason.
Noah Webster
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The education of youth, an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success.
Noah Webster
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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 reezon than our ancestors.
Noah Webster
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The virtues of men are of more consequence to society than their abilities, and for this reason, the heart should be cultivated with more assiduity than the head.
Noah Webster
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Ability is active power, or power to perform.
Noah Webster
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Language, as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God.
Noah Webster