Thomas Jefferson Quotes

The danger of silent accumulations and encroachments by ecclesiastical bodies has not sufficiently engaged attention in the U.S.

There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion

The Roman Catholics must know as well as we do that 'Popery' when encouraged by government has always been dangerous to the liberties of the people.

There is little doubt that religious liberty is best exercised within the setting of the secular state.

Zealous groups threaten to infringe civil liberties when they seek government support to impose their own religious views on non-adherents. This has taken many forms, including attempts to introduce organized prayer in public schools, to outlaw birth control and abortion, and to use public tax revenues to finance religious schools.

When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes.

What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights.

The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion—except for the sect that can win political power.

In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights.

What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small.

I love the ACLU and I'm concerned now, especially when it comes to our rights, with current politics and the religious community and the Conservative majority or minority - I don't know who they are.

While the struggle for religious liberty had proceeded without large-scale bloodshed in New England and elsewhere in the United States, the struggle for political liberty had not fared so well.

I think we recognize as Americans there are certain things that are just primary to the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy here and religious freedom is one of the most important things we as Americans cherish.

It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.

A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion.

I don’t see a bit of danger from us having an established religion.

When the government says to you that they want to help you be more religious, you want to run away from them as fast as possible.

Resolved, That we especially protest against this present attempt to force all the people to follow the religious dictates of a part of the people, as establishing a precedent for the entrance of a most dangerous complicity between Church and State, thereby subtly undermining the foundation of liberty, so carefully laid by the wisdom of our fathers.

I know it will give great offense to the clergy, but the advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from them.

In a free government the security for civil rights must be the same as that for religious rights ... security in both cases will depend on the number and interests and sects.

We want a separation of church and state, but we also want the human and civil rights of all people. Religion is a human right.

It is not possible in the nature of things to establish religion by human laws without perverting the design of civil law and oppressing the people.

Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over other religions, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others. However, today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others equality. In our nation’s past religion has been used to justify slavery and later, Jim Crow laws. We now see “religious liberty” arguments sneaking their way back into our political and constitutional discourse (just like the concept of “state rights”) in an effort to undermine the rights of some Americans.

Our religious freedoms are under constant attack from a variety of groups who seek to undermine our constitutional rights and threaten our founding principles.

I just see religious freedom, as a category, as just being a black hole.