53 Quotes by Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush, a physician, scientist, and Founding Father of the United States, made significant contributions to medicine, psychology, and public health. Known as the "Father of American Psychiatry," Rush played a crucial role in the early development of the field, advocating for humane treatment of the mentally ill and promoting mental health awareness.
His groundbreaking work in identifying and classifying mental disorders laid the foundation for modern psychiatric understanding. Additionally, Rush was a prominent physician who actively participated in the medical community, advancing medical education and championing public health initiatives.
He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and played a vital role in the early days of the United States, serving as Surgeon General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Benjamin Rush's contributions to the fields of medicine, psychiatry, and public health, as well as his commitment to the ideals of the United States, have solidified his legacy as an influential figure in American history.
Benjamin Rush Quotes
Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.
If we were to remove the Bible from public schools we would be wasting so much time punishing crimes and taking so little pains to prevent them.
The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.
The only foundation for a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.
Let the children be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education.
Freedom can exist only in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights. (Meaning)
The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.
Without Virtue there can be no liberty
I have alternately been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat.
Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them.
The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution.
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.
Mothers and schools plant the seeds of nearly all the good and evil which exists in the world.
Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error.
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.
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]. . .
A simple democracy is the devil's own government.
Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more — we have increased their mortality.
Beer is a wholesome liquor...it abounds with nourishment
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.
By withholding the knowledge of the Scriptures from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.
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.
The gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation in life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations!
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.
Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.
Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.
Liberty without virtue would be no blessing to us.
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. The Amor Patriae love of ones country is both a moral duty and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present but of future generations. This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first characters of history.
Without the restraints of religion and social worship, men become savages much sooner than savages become civilized by means of religion and civil government.
Tis done. We have become a nation.
Terror acts powerfully upon the body, through the medium of the mind, and should be employed in the cure of madness.
By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects..It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published.
Mirth, and even cheerfulness, when employed as remedies in low spirits, are like hot water to a frozen limb.
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.
We have not only multiplied diseases, but we have made them more fatal.
While the business of education in Europe consists in lectures upon the ruins of Palmyra and the antiquities of Herculaneum , or in disputes about Hebrew points, Greek particles, or the accent and quantity of the Roman language, the youth of America will be employed in acquiring those branches of knowledge which increase the conveniences of life.
[W]here there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.
Now if the study of the Scriptures be necessary to our happiness at any time in our life, the sooner we begin to read them, the more we shall be attached to them.
There is but one method of rendering a republican form of government durable, and that is by disseminating the seeds of virtue and knowledge through every part of the state by means of proper places and modes of education and this can be done effectively only by the aid of the legislature.
A pioneer is generally a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts.
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.
Scandal dies sooner of itself, than we could kill it.
In Macbeth a lady is restrained from the murder of a king by his resemblance of her father as he slept. Should not all men be restrained from acts of violence and even of unkindness against their fellow men by observing in them something which resembles the Savior of the World? If nothing else certainly, a human figure?
The art of healing is like an unroofed temple, uncovered at the top and cracked at the foundation.
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.
Mania's premonitory signs are unusual acts of extravagance, manifested by the purchase of houses, and certain expensive and unnecessary articles of furniture.
Christianity is the only true and perfect religion; and... in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obey its precepts, they will be wise and happy.
Dreams are nothing but incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or imperfect sleep.
Such is my veneration for every religion that reveals the attributes of the Deity, or a future state of rewards and punishments, that I had rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mahomed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles.
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.
A Christian cannot fail of being a republican.
Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property ... He must be taught to amass wealth, but it must be only to increase his power of contributing to the wants and demands of the state... [Education] can be done effectually only by the interference and aid of the Legislature.
It would seem from this fact, that man is naturally a wild animal, and that when taken from the woods, he is never happy in his natural state, 'till he returns to them again.
― Benjamin Rush Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
