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
The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man — 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
The opinions of men should not be the object of any government. Our civil rights are no more dependent on our religious… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one… — 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
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 Copy Share Image
Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
[All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Your sect [the Jews] by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent in every… — 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 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
Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have… — 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
Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Ministers of the Gospel are excluded [from serving as Visitors of the county Elementary Schools] to avoid jealousy from the other sects,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the… — 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
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
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot,… — 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
If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises… — 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
All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
This is perhaps the most important statement on religion ever made. It clarified the intent of the founders of the constitution irrespective… — 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
From the dissensions among Sects themselves arise necessarily a right of choosing and necessity of deliberating to which we will conform. But… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
If thinking men would have the courage to think for themselves, and to speak what they think, it would be found they… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
There is not one redeeming feature in our superstition of Christianity. It has made one half the world fools, and the other… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
My religious reading has long been confined to the moral branch of religion, which is the same in all religions; while in… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
His system of morality was the most benevolent and sublime probably that has been ever taught, and consequently more perfect than those… — 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
Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him (i.e. Jesus) by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality,… — Thomas Jefferson Copy Share Image
... I am not afraid of priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying… — 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/quotes/i/895/thomas-jefferson-43_aristocracy_the-law-for-religious-freedom-has-put-do_60865.jpg)
![“I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d1f/thomas-jefferson-43_atheism_i-have-recently-been-examining-all-the-k_384136.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/quotes/i/fac/thomas-jefferson-43_break_it-is-time-enough-for-the-rightful-purpo_2061978.jpg)
![“[All religious sects] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight; and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversion of the duperies in which they live.” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08c/thomas-jefferson-43_announcing_all-religious-sects-dread-the-advance-of_1053268.jpg)
![“Your sect [the Jews] by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practised by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religions, as they…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/29c/thomas-jefferson-43_antidote_your-sect-the-jews-by-its-sufferings-has_433645.jpg)
![“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/quotes/i/ce9/thomas-jefferson-43_altars_the-clergy-believe-that-any-portion-of-p_1301853.jpg)
![“Ministers of the Gospel are excluded [from serving as Visitors of the county Elementary Schools] to avoid jealousy from the other sects, were the public education committed to the ministers of a particular one; and with more reason than in the case of their exclusion from the legislative and…” quote by Thomas Jefferson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/760/thomas-jefferson-43_cases_ministers-of-the-gospel-are-excluded-fro_628946.jpg)
