The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and in-grafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
We have solved, by fair experiment, the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
A man has a right to use a saw, an axe, a plane, separately; may he not combine their uses on the same piece… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
[States and the Federal government are] coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
“Perceiving the order of nature to be that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue, I am willing to hope it… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy, and not confidence, which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
The two principles on which our conduct towards the Indians should be founded are justice and fear. After the injuries we have done them,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
There is... an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents... The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share
