Atheism Quotes by Thomas Jefferson

The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions.

— Thomas Jefferson

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

— Thomas Jefferson

What is it men cannot be made to believe!

— Thomas Jefferson

Question with boldness even the existence of a god.

— Thomas Jefferson

Civil officials have no business meddling in private religious affairs.

— Thomas Jefferson

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

— Thomas Jefferson

Every Christian sect gives a great handle to Atheism by their general dogma that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient…

— Thomas Jefferson

Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.

— Thomas Jefferson

Nothing but free argument, raillery and even ridicule will preserve the purity of religion.

— Thomas Jefferson

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one…

— Thomas Jefferson

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions.

— Thomas Jefferson

I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian.

— Thomas Jefferson

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.

— Thomas Jefferson

But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. Is this a proof…

— Thomas Jefferson

I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the…

— Thomas Jefferson

Of publishing a book on religion, my dear sir, I never had an idea. I should as soon think of writing for…

— Thomas Jefferson

I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives... But this does not satisfy the priesthood. They must have…

— Thomas Jefferson

The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a…

— Thomas Jefferson

... the common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name…

— Thomas Jefferson

The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance…

— Thomas Jefferson

No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact,…

— Thomas Jefferson

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

The fumes of the most disordered imaginations were recorded in their religious code, as special communications of the Deity; and as it…

— Thomas Jefferson

I am anxious to see the doctrine of one god commenced in our state. But the population of my neighborhood is too…

— Thomas Jefferson

The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding, and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticism…

— Thomas Jefferson

[If] the nature of ... government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate…

— Thomas Jefferson

The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust…

— Thomas Jefferson

Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no…

— Thomas Jefferson

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was…

— Thomas Jefferson

“...it is not to be understood that I am with him [Jesus] in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist, he takes…

— Thomas Jefferson

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

— Thomas Jefferson

The Christian god is a being of terrific character - cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.

— Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

— Thomas Jefferson

Turning, then, from this loathsome combination of church and state, and weeping over the follies of our fellow men, who yield themselves…

— Thomas Jefferson

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance…

— Thomas Jefferson

Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been…

— Thomas Jefferson

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for…

— Thomas Jefferson

I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying…

— Thomas Jefferson

I can never join Calvin in addressing his god. He was indeed an Atheist, which I can never be; or rather his…

— Thomas Jefferson

In reviewing the history of the times through which we have passed, no portion of it gives greater satisfaction or reflection, than…

— Thomas Jefferson