“Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”

HE WAS RIGHT!! Just look at what we have become.

Read it again and again. This is so true. BE AWARE!

It is possible to be moral without believing in God. There are some nonbelievers who are more moral than some believers, as there are some believers who are more moral than some nonbelievers.

If it is possible to be "moral" without believing in God, then what is the definition of "moral?" Who determines this definition, and what makes one person's definition more probable/believable than any one else's? In other words, where is the standard? There is none, as everything becomes relative, or so it seems to me.

What is the source of this quote?

Are you serious? Morality is more than just abiding by the law of the land. Morality transcends complicity to the government. Morality is a God-given understanding of fundamental truth and an adherence to the standard of justice that God requires of men along with an understanding that a man shall be held accountable to that standard. And it will only be by that standard that a man can be vindicated when he stands before his Creator (whether he believes in his existence or not).

A ship without a navigation capability (compass, GPS, or the stars) is bound to wander the oceans longer than one that has navigating tools and skills. If nothing else god serves as a moral compass for nations. If you remove god then the morality of laws can drift to anarchy.

ABSOLUTELY ! ! ! We hold this truth to be self evident ! ! ! History has proven this over, and over, and over again.

He is so true. That is the foundation of freedom.

Befitting for the day, " For death has come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Speak, Thus saith the Lord, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestmanm, and none shall gather them. Thus saith the Lord, Let no the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Jeremiah 9:21,22,23,24. Patrick Henry, drawing strait from the doctrines of liberty ordained by God given to the thirteeneth apostle Paul, who gives unto us, a people " far off" justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue. If adhered to, maintain the blessings of Liberty and Freedom. One of my favorite Founding Fathers.

It's always interesting to hear how each person defines God. From the Deist perspective, the quote is bang on. No source can be found for the quote, however, and it sounds a bit specious.

Very well said E Archer, NYC. From the point of a Deist, nonintervention is due to the state of the dispensation of grace. A blanket policy, The power is in the blood. But as to revelation ? Understanding, even with music, is a muse. Plato explains it as ( Eu-A-Mousoi ), Happily without the Muses. Nature, God's nature at its Very Best. But he describes the democratic doubtful view. Those without faith.