Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” —Monty Python’s…

From Augustine down, theologians have tried to compel people to accept their special interpretation of the Scripture, and the tortures of the inquisition, the…

— Matilda Joslyn Gage

If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the inquisition might have let him alone.

— Thomas Hardy

Where there is no danger of overt action there is rarely any interference with freedom. That is why there has so often been amazing…

— Walter Lippmann

You find this curious fact, that the more intense has been the religion of any period and more profound has been the dogmatic belief,…

— Bertrand Russell

A prisoner in the Inquisition is never allowed to see the face of his accuser, or of the witnesses against him, but every method…

— John Foxe

Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to…

— Thomas Szasz

“pro scienta atque sapienta-Latin- for science and wisdom It's a Darwinian popularity contest. at all times, the question on everyone's mind is, "who's coolest?"…

— Ned Vizzini

After the survivor of the Spanish conquest has told his life's story he is convicted by the Inquisition: He posted no brief in defense…

— Gary Jennings

The Christians who engaged in infamous persecutions and shameful inquisitions were not evil men but misguided men. The churchmen who felt they had an…

— Martin Luther King, Jr

Intolerance has always been one of the cornerstones of Christianity - the glorious heritage of the Inquisition. It's no coincidence that most of my…

— Madalyn Murray O'Hair

If you compare the United States with Europe, my view is that what happened in Europe is that the church became deeply distrusted by…

— John Rawls

“The important question to ask is why these bodies are allowed to exist. If a country such as Spain allowed a repressive body like…

— Cullen Murphy

We cannot permit any inquisition either within or without the law or apply any religious test to the holding of office. The mind of…

— Calvin Coolidge

I subject my sentences and the words to a kind of Grand Inquisition.

— Lynne Tillman

“American foreign policy was a mirror image of Russian foreign policy: whatever the Russians did, we did in reverse. American domestic policies were conducted…

— Archibald MacLeish