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Quote by Thomas Jefferson

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.”

Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786

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The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia II, Correspondence 1782-1786

The book features Thomas Jefferson's influential work on the social and political landscape of Virginia, along with his extensive correspondence during a pivotal period in American history. more

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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, a distinguished politician, philosopher, architect, and scientist. He was born on April 13, 1743, and died on July 4, 1826. Jefferson advocated for democracy and freedom in politics and was one of the main authors of the Declaration of Independence. His political ideas had a profound impact on the founding and development of the United States. more

“I have never conceived that having been in public life required me to belie my sentiments, or to conceal them. Opinion and the just maintenance of it shall never be a crime in my view, nor bring injury on the individual. I never will by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance. I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own; a reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself.”

People Might Individual Religious Views Christianity Opinion Subjects Crime Esteem Injury Sentiments Bows Intolerance Reserves Public Life Maintenance Shrines

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and freedom of religion, it [fanaticism] could have arisen to the height you describe. This must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphemy of the five points of Calvin, and the impossibility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of reasoning, irritable, and prone to denunciation.”

Ideas Growth Religious Christianity Five No Idea Height Reasoning Impossibility Impatient Fanaticism Cradle Blasphemy Owing Pennsylvania Freedom Of Religion Toleration

Book:Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson

Source: Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson

“Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”

“To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But heresy it certainly is.”

Source: Jefferson: Writings

“The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy].”

Religious Christianity Religious Freedom Clergy

Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont

“The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and in-grafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.”

Source: Jefferson: Political Writings

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”

People Men Should Believe Matter States Whole Government Action Law Lying Religion Church Religious Christianity Opinion Atheism Building Wall Exercise Worship Accounts Atheist Separation Establishment Reverence Contemplating Sovereign Founding Religious Faith First Amendment Church And State Legislature Separation Of Church And State There Is No God Our Founding Fathers Religious Belief Founding Fathers Christian State Government Organized Religion Us Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Religion Separation Between Church And State Founding Fathers Religious If There Is A God Religion God Christian Church Religious Liberty Founding Fathers Anti Religion Founding Fathers Of America Founding America American Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Atheist Deism There Being No God Christianity From Founding Fathers Christian Atheist Religion Christian Christian Father Us Constitution Religion And Government Anti Christian Christian Right Faith Religion Amendment 1 Deist Religious Truth Christianity And Government Laws And Government

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“Ministers of the Gospel are excluded [from serving as Visitors of the county Elementary Schools] to avoid jealousy from the other sects, were the public education committed to the ministers of a particular one; and with more reason than in the case of their exclusion from the legislative and executive functions.”

Reason School Religious Christianity Cases Particular Function Committed Ministers Executives Serving County Visitors Sects Exclusion Excluded Public Education Elementary School

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced [in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination.”

School Reading Religious Christianity Exercise Instruction Sects Inconsistent Elementary School Denominations Religious Sects

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private : published by the order of the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the Department of State

Quote by Thomas Jefferson

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