Our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to God alone. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To unequal privileges among members of the same society the spirit of our nation is, with one accord, adverse. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The declaration that religious faith shall be unpunished does not give immunity to criminal acts dictated by religious error. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The law for religious freedom... [has]put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What all agree upon is probably right; what no two agree in most probably is wrong. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is surely time for men to think for themselves, and to throw off the authority of names so artificially magnified. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In reviewing the history of the times through which we have passed, no portion of it gives greater satisfaction or reflection, than… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is time enough, for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere [in the propagation of religious teachings]… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Every Christian sect gives a great handle to Atheism by their general dogma that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The rights [to religious freedom] are of the natural rights of mankind, and ... if any act shall be ... passed to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Of distinction by birth or badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In America, no other distinction between man and man had ever been known but that of persons in office exercising powers by… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Turning, then, from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow men, who yield themselves… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The fumes of the most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code, as special communications of the Deity; and as it… — 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
The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticism… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Our [Virginia's] act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The Ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe resident at… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
... the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If a sect arises whose tenets would subvert morals, good sense has fair play and reasons and laughs it out of doors… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If anything pass in a religious meeting seditiously and contrary to the public peace, let it be punished in the same manner… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[If] the nature of ... government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Of publishing a book on religion, my dear sir, I never had an idea. I should as soon think of writing for… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
This doctrine ['that the condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been must ever be, and that to secure ourselves… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In our Richmond there is much fanaticism, but chiefly among the women. They have their night meetings and prayer parties, where, attended… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Subject opinion to coercion: whom will you make your inquisitors? Fallible men; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as… — 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
![“The law for religious freedom... [has]put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/895/thomas-jefferson-43_aristocracy_the-law-for-religious-freedom-has-put-do_60865.jpg)
![“It is time enough, for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere [in the propagation of religious teachings] when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/fac/thomas-jefferson-43_break_it-is-time-enough-for-the-rightful-purpo_2061978.jpg)
![“The rights [to religious freedom] are of the natural rights of mankind, and ... if any act shall be ... passed to repeal [an act granting those rights] or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/b59/thomas-jefferson-43_freedom_the-rights-to-religious-freedom-are-of-t_2762239.jpg)
![“Of distinction by birth or badge, [Americans] had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/896/thomas-jefferson-43_badges_of-distinction-by-birth-or-badge-america_767499.jpg){kind=icon}
![“The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/ce9/thomas-jefferson-43_altars_the-clergy-believe-that-any-portion-of-p_1301853.jpg)
![“Our [Virginia's] act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The Ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe resident at this court have asked me copies of it to send to their sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in the press; among others, in…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/508/thomas-jefferson-43_ambassadors_our-virginia-s-act-for-freedom-of-religi_2603800.jpg)
![“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/f83/thomas-jefferson-43_citizens_the-most-sacred-of-the-duties-of-a-gover_3100529.jpg)
![“That liberty [is pure] which is to go to all, and not to the few or the rich alone.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/b52/thomas-jefferson-43_freedom_that-liberty-is-pure-which-is-to-go-to-a_1990032.jpg)
![“The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/8e7/thomas-jefferson-43_benevolent_the-christian-religion-when-divested-of_1371700.jpg)
![“[If] the nature of ... government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate for long years to come. Their steady habits [will] exclude the advances of information, and they [will] seem exactly where they [have always been]. And there [the]…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/612/thomas-jefferson-43_atheism_if-the-nature-of-government-were-a-subor_2243937.jpg)
![“This doctrine ['that the condition of man cannot be ameliorated, that what has been must ever be, and that to secure ourselves where we are we must tread with awful reverence in the footsteps of our fathers']is the genuine fruit of the alliance between Church and State, the tenants of which…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/78e/thomas-jefferson-43_alliances_this-doctrine-that-the-condition-of-man_2558220.jpg)
