salt of the earth, the

Idioms  

1. The best or noblest of their kind, as in These campers are the salt of the earth. This metaphoric term was used by Jesus for those who were persecuted for being loyal to him (Matthew 5:13) and has been repeated ever since.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

salt of the earth, the

Jones thinks borrowers are the salt of the earth, the optimists, the builders, the men who take chances and thus make the U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

Princes, bishops, generals, once the salt of the earth, the mightiest of men, and now lumped carelessly together as thirty-eight Stuarts. 

From A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

She was the salt of the earth, the embodiment of nobility, the soul of truth; and not only her own state but the whole country is better because she lived.

From Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story Woven into Eight Popular Lectures by George W. Bain

They recoiled with the utmost abhorrence from the pollutions of the age, and became indeed "the salt of the earth," the sole moral antiseptic to prevent the total disintegration of society.

From Valeria The Martyr of the Catacombs by William Henry Withrow

His disciples are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city set on a hill.

From Companion to the Bible by E. P. (Elijah Porter) Barrows

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