“One would suppose that the battle for religious liberty was won in the United States two hundred years ago. However, in the time since, and right now, powerful voices are always raised in favor of bigotry and thought control. It is useful, then, to have a compendium of the thoughts of great men and women of all faiths (and of none) on the subject, to convince us that we men and woman of freedom are not and never have been alone.” MenYearsHas BeensTwoStatesVoiceReligiousUnitedPowerfulLibertyUnited StatesAtheismSubjectsRight NowBattleHundredMen And WomenYears AgoRaisedPositive AtheismFavorsGreat MenConvinceBigotryReligious LibertyConvince Us Author:Isaac Asimov
“My bad head cannot adjust itself to the way things are.... If I want to depict spring, it has to be in wintertime; if I want to describe a beautiful landscape, I must be enclosed within walls; and I have said a hundred times that if I were put in the Bastille, there I would paint a picture of liberty.” IfsWayWantSaidTruthBeautifulImaginationLibertyWallSpringHundredPaintLandscapeAutobiographyWintertimeBeautiful LandscapesBastille Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“It has ever been my hobby-horse to see rising in America an empire of liberty, and a prospect of two or three hundred millions of freemen, without one noble or one king among them. You say it is impossible. If I should agree with you in this, I would still say, let us try the experiment, and preserve our equality as long as we can. A better system of education for the common people might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities as are prejudicial to society, by confounding the natural distinctions of right and wrong, virtue and vice.” PeopleIfsShouldTryingLongStillsTwoMightAmericaThreeNaturalFreedomCommonLibertyMillionsVirtueImpossibleKingsHundredHorseAgreeVicesNobleExperimentsInequalityPreservesRisingDistinctionEmpiresArtificialHobbiesFreemanConfounding Book:Works: with a life of the author Source: Works: with a life of the author
“There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls in one ship, whose weal and woe is common, and is a true picture of a commonwealth or a human combination or society. It hath fallen out sometimes that Papists, Protestants, Jews, and Turks may be embarked in one ship; upon which supposal I affirm that all the liberty of conscience that ever I pleaded for turns upon these two hinges: that none of the Papists, Protestants, Jews, or Turks be forced to come to the ships prayers or worship, nor be compelled [restrained] from their own particular prayers or worship, if they practice any.” IfsHumansMayTwoSoulSometimesTurnsPrayerCommonLibertyPracticeSeaParticularWorshipHundredConscienceJewShipsCombinationFallenWoeCompelledProtestantsCommonwealthHinges Author:Roger Williams
“That great political idea, sanctifying freedom and consecrating it to God, teaching men to treasure the liberties of others as their own and to defend them for the love of justice and charity more than as a claim of right, has been the soul of what is great and good in the progress of the last two hundred years.” MenYearsHas BeensTwoIdeasSoulLastsPoliticalJusticeLibertyProgressTeachingHundredClaimsCharityTreasureGreat Political Book:The History of Freedom: Great Event Source: The History of Freedom: Great Event
“For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still.” YearsLittlesStillsLibertyEconomicHundredFairsEconomicsFoulAvaricePrecautionUsuryAvarice Greed Book:Essays in persuasion Source: Essays in persuasion