The selfish spirit of commerce, which knows no country, and feels no passion or principle but that of gain. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require that force should be interposed to a certain degree. — 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
Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry...” — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Civil officials have no business meddling in private religious affairs. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Sir, no nation has ever yet existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion… — 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
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
I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced [in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
What has been the effect of [religious] coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[O]ur rules can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to… — 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
The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I will now add what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly and without the… — 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
Above all things, lose no occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be charitable, to be humane,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I never told my own religion nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. On the dogmas of… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The genuine and simple religion of Jesus will one day be restored: such as it was preached and practiced by Himself. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I consider ethics, as well as religion, as supplements to law in the government of man. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The Christian god is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
“I hope they pardoned them. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that i wish it to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The result of your fifty or sixty years of religious reading in the four words: 'Be just and good,' is that in… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I do love this people [the French] with all my heart, and think that with a better religion and a better form… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
life is of no value but as it brings gratifications. among the most valuable of these is rational society. it informs the… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I am myself an empiric in natural philosophy, suffering my faith to go no further than my facts. I am pleased, however,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion. -quoting… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
He, who steadily observes those moral precepts in which all religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven 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
![“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.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/eaa/thomas-jefferson-43_christianity_no-religious-reading-instruction-or-exer_3186938.jpg)
![“What has been the effect of [religious] coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/e73/thomas-jefferson-43_american-founding-fa_what-has-been-the-effect-of-religious-co_3189614.jpg)
![“[O]ur rules can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/c72/thomas-jefferson-43_authority_o-ur-rules-can-have-authority-over-such_2895951.jpg)
![“It astonishes me to find... [that so many] of our countrymen... should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/d2e/thomas-jefferson-43_army_it-astonishes-me-to-find-that-so-many-of_1421509.jpg)
![“I do love this people [the French] with all my heart, and think that with a better religion and a better form of government and their present governors their condition and country would be most enviable.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/9d2/thomas-jefferson-43_conditions_i-do-love-this-people-the-french-with-al_1131931.jpg)
