Rousas John Rushdoony > Quotes

“It must be recognized that in any culture the source of law is the god of that society.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, Volume 1 of 3

“History has never been dominated by majorities, but only by dedicated minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“To control the future requires the control of education and of the child. Hence, for Christians to tolerate statist education, or to allow their children to be trained thereby, means to renounce power in society, to renounce their children, and to deny Christ's Lordship over all of life.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“It is significant that, as innocent babies are killed, and capital punishment is withheld from their murderers, the same men who plead for the murderer's life also demand the “right” to abortion. Usually, the same picketers that carry a sign one day, “Abolish Capital Punishment,” also carry “Legalize Abortion” another day. When this is called to their attention, their answer is, “There is no contradiction involved.” They are right: the thesis is “condemn the innocent and free the guilty.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“People do not avoid the Bible because it is difficult to understand as much as because what they understand condemns their conscience and throws light on dark corners in their lives which they prefer to keep dark.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, A Word in Season, Volume 2

“Life is rarely easy, but, with Christ our King, it is always good.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“We cannot use our thoughts and feelings as a standard: only God’s Word is the test.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“Our increasingly humanistic laws, courts and legislators are giving us a new morality. They tell us, as they strike down laws resting upon biblical foundations, that morality cannot be legislated, but what they offer is not only legislated morality, but salvation by law.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Law and Liberty

“There can be no good character in civil government if there is none in the people. You cannot make a good omelet with bad eggs.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“It needs more than ever to be stressed that the best and truest educators are parents under God. The greatest school is the family. In learning, no act of teaching in any school or university compares to the routine task of mothers in teaching a babe who speaks no language the mother tongue in so short a time. No other task in education is equal to this. The moral training of the children, the discipline of good habits, is an inheritance from the parents to the children which surpasses all other. The family is the first and basic school of man.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, Volume 1 of 3

“The result of becoming tolerant towards sin is that we become intolerant towards God and His Word.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“Socialism is politicized envy.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Exodus: Commentaries on the Pentateuch

“We are very much in need now of Christian pioneers. This means a people who are zealous to grow and to exercise dominion in Christ.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“Godly men are not revolutionists: the Lord's way is regeneration, not revolution.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum

“Our basic problem today is that we have two religions in conflict, humanism and Christianity, each with its own morality and the laws of that morality.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Law and Liberty

“The Lord supplies our needs, but not our selfishness”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“Children are no longer seen by many people as a blessing from God but as extensions of personal goals and pride. As a result, the family under humanism is in a state of crisis.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“The end of an age is always a time of turmoil, war, economic catastrophe, cynicism, lawlessness and distress. But it is also an era of heightened challenge and creativity, of issues, and their world-wide scope, never has an era faced a more demanding and exciting crisis. This then, above all else, is the great and glorious era to live in, a time of of opportunity, one requiring fresh and vigorous thinking, indeed, a glorious time to be alive.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Intellectual Schizophrenia: Culture, Crisis and Education

“Our progress in the past usually came slowly, and our recovery will come slowly. It will come as men, each in their sphere of action, begin the task of reconstruction. Reconstruction begins with our lives and God's grace; it extends to our vocations, our institutions' homes, and society' Life and progress are made up of a great number of little things; we cover a mile by small steps, and the surest move forward is that small step rather than a giant day dream.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, The Roots of Reconstruction

“The precondition of giving thanks with sincerity is always humility.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“All too many churchmen view the undisciplined & amoral products of statist education as evidences of the failure of these schools. On the contrary, they are evidences of their success.”
― R.J. Rushdoony

“We may disagree with the morality of a law, but we cannot deny the moral concern of a law.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Law and Liberty

“Man lives in time but his life transcends time.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Systematic Theology

“Humanistic law aims at saving man and remaking society. For Humanism, salvation is an act of the state.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Law and Liberty

“Law is good, proper, and essential in its place, but law can save no man, nor can law remake man and society.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Law and Liberty

“According to Scripture, it was not man's flesh that fell into sin, but the whole man. The doctrine of total depravity means that the extent of the Fall is total, that every aspect of man's being is tainted by sin, and that the root of it is the 'heart' of man, in his mind, nature and being. To seek refuge in the spirit to escape from the flesh is to seek sanctity in the capitol of sin, for it was and is man's desire to be as God, to be his own god, determining good and evil for himself, which is the essence of original sin (Gen. 3:5). The ascetic quest thus took refuge in sin from sin! It flew from the suburbs of temptation into the central city of sin and was then bewildered to find the enemy there.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, The Flight From Humanity, Second Edition

“For Dewey, the Great Community was the basic fact of history. The individual and the soul were invalid concepts, man was truly man, not as an individual, but as after Aristotle, in society and supremely in the State. Thus, for Dewey, true education mean not the development of the individual in terms of learning, but his socialization.

Progressive education... educates the individual in terms of particular facts of the universe without reference to God, truth, or morality.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, The One and The Many: Studies in the Philosophy of Order and Ultimacy

“It is the fear of God which gives us the confidence to face men and their evil and to be confident of ultimate victory.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, Exodus: Commentaries on the Pentateuch

“To be fearless in the Lord does not require us to be great and powerful men, but only to believe in the great and powerful God.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, A Word in Season, Volume 1

“Freedom in the Biblical sense is always at a price; it is a costly gift, and it requires great things of us.”
― R.J. Rushdoony, A Word in Season, Volume 1