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About this quote

What does it mean?
Religion supports national morality better than education or reason alone.
In plain terms
Society needs religion to stay moral, not just learning.
What can you take from it?
Religious principles underpin public morality.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • education reform
  • public discourse

Putting it to work

  • include values in curriculum
  • discuss role of faith
  • evaluate civic norms

Questions to consider

  • Can morality exist without religion?
  • What supports your ethics?

Another view

Some societies maintain morality without organized religion.

More from George Washington

  1. Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the trib…

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  2. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every speci…

    Permalink to quote #61
  3. The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It se…

    Permalink to quote #58

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