Separation Between Church And State Quotes - Page 5

• Who does not see that . . . the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?

  James Madison

  Support, Church, May

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.

  James Monroe

  Wise, Teaching, Mean

  James Monroe (199?). “The Writings of James Monroe: 1817-1823”

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• ... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

  George Washington

  Atheist, Government, Giving

  Letter to Hebrew congregation of Newport, R.I., 17 Aug. 1790

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• To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against the liberty of conscience, which is one of the foundations of American life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Presidential, Church, Liberty

  Theodore Roosevelt (1908). “Americanism in Religion”

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• Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Exercise, Government

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.104

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• [The Drafters of the Constitution] were intent on avoiding more than 100 years of religious intolerance and persecution in American colonial history and an even longer heritage of church-state problems in Europe.

  John M Swomley

  Religious, Years, Europe

  John M. Swomley (1987). “Religious liberty and the secular state: the constitutional context”

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• I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  Al Smith

  Believe, Exercise, Law

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• But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Faith Religion, Departed

  Thomas Jefferson (1853). “The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private”, p.492

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• I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!

  John Adams

  Grief, Faith Religion, Historical

  Letter to Thomas Jefferson, founders.archives.gov. September 03, 1816.

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• The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.

  Hugo Black

  Religious, Wall, Church

  Writing for the court, Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 1947.

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• For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew— or a Quaker or a Unitarian or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.

  John F. Kennedy

  Religious, Virginia, Years

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

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• We believe in separation of church and state, that there should be no unwarranted influence on the church or religion by the state, and vice versa.

  Jimmy Carter

  Believe, Presidential, Church

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• The government of the United States of America has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.

  John Adams

  Character, Law, America

  "Treaty of Tripoli". Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary signed by President John Adams (Article 11), www.huffingtonpost.com. June 10, 1797.

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• I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Father, Religion, Dignity

  Benjamin Franklin (1836). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin; Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published; with Notes and a Life of the Author”, p.2

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• It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and a usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties.

  James Monroe

  Wise, Mean, Exercise

  George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Milhous Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama (2017). “Inaugural Speeches from the Presidents of the United States - Complete Edition”, p.35, e-artnow sro

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• All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Liberty, Opinion

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.206, Penguin

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• The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Faith Religion, Atheism

  Thomas Paine (1861). “The Age of Reason, etc”, p.7

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• But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?

  John Adams

  Christian, Religious, Faith Religion

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1856). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.235

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• If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Religion

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.428, Penguin

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• The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation is ever dangerous.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Faith Religion, Office, Superstitions

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, contin. Reports and opinions while Secretary of State”, p.167

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• The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster cruel vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging three headed beast like god one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes fools and hypocrites.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Christian, Atheist, Hypocrite

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• Christianity is part of the Common Law of England.

  Matthew Hale

  Christian, Law, England

  In 'Historia Placitorum Coronae' (ed. Sollom Emlyn, 1736)

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• Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Faith Religion

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (2008). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.82, Courier Corporation

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• No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs, for church attendance or non-attendance.

  Hugo Black

  Religious, Church, Attendance

  Writing for the court, Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1, 1947.

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• I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.

  John F. Kennedy

  Religious, Believe, Views

  Speech at Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Rice Hotel, Houston, Texas, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. September 12, 1960.

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