Noah Porter (1811–92,) fully Noah Thomas Porter III, was an American clergyman, philosopher, author, educationalist, lexicographer, and an outspoken anti-slavery activist. He was President of Yale College 1871–86.
Born in Farmington, Connecticut, Porter studied at Yale and was a Congregational minister in Connecticut and Massachusetts (1836–46.) He was a professor of moral philosophy and metaphysics at Yale and was president of the college 1871–86.
Porter was the editor-in-chief of Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language (1864) and Webster’s International Dictionary of the English Language (1890.) His notable other works are The Human Intellect (1868,) Books and Reading (1870,) and Moral Science (1885.)
Porter’s sister was Sarah Porter, the founder of Miss Porter’s School, still one of America’s leading preparatory schools for girls.
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Christianity is more than history. It is also a system of truths. Every event which its history records, either is a truth, or suggests or expresses a truth, which man needs assent to or to put into practice.
—Noah Porter
Topics: Christianity
No man can read with profit that which he cannot learn to read with pleasure. If I do not find in a book something which I am looking for, or am ready to receive, then the book is no book for me however much it may be for another man.
—Noah Porter
Topics: Reading, Books
Remember that what you believe will depend very much upon what you are.
—Noah Porter
Topics: Beliefs, Belief
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