Believe Quote by Thomas Jefferson

The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they…

— Thomas Jefferson

If all Church power vests in the clergy, then the people are practically bound to passive obedience in all matters of faith and practice;…

— Charles Hodge

You must believe in God, in spite of what the clergy say.

— Benjamin Jowett

I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by…

— Anonymous

Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy…

— Harper Lee

I really believed that the priests were acquainted with my thoughts; and often stood in great awe of them. They often told me they…

— Maria Monk

I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own…

— Oliver Cowdery

“You must never be limited by external authority, whether it be vested in a church, man, or book. It is your right to question,…

— Bhagat Singh Thind

Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do…

— Bertrand Russell

I have had so many evidences of [God's] direction, so many instances when I have been controlled by some other power than my own…

— Abraham Lincoln

You can latch onto theological ideas that are, in fact, not accurate, and refuse to let them go. I think we've seen this a…

— Frederica Mathewes-Green

It would be foolish to assert that there is no power above mine. Only the attitude that I take toward it will be quite…

— Max Stirner