James A. Garfield Quotes

I believe in the Constitution. The Constitution says that government isn't supposed to be infusing religion into our society, and so I asked to have that upheld.

Every American has the constitutional right not to be taxed or have his tax money expended for the establishment of a religion.

I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it.

Declare Church and State forever separate and distinct, but each free within their proper spheres, and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation.

Government needs to stay out of the religion business altogether.

The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

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

State power is no more to be used so as to handicap religions than it is to favor them.

The 1st Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.

The greatest achievement ever made in the cause of human progress is the total and final separation of church and state. If we had nothing else to boast of, we could lay claim with justice that first among the nations we of this country made it an article of organic law that the relations between man and his Maker were a private concern, into which other men have no right to intrude.

Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than on opinions in physics or geometry.

Churches are excluded from the affairs of government. Important, discretionary, governmental powers may not be delegated to or shared with religious institutions.

The First Amendment forbids the setting up of recognition of a state church of special favors and advantages which are denied to others

With us, the State is undoubtedly on solid ground in refusing to decide what type of religion is best for society. Society is left free to work out the problem. And here is a curious and pertinent matter for remark: that the Stale is the only department of civilization which, by common consent, is denied this privilege.

The first amendment makes it clear that we are free to practice religion without government interference. The Constitution also establishes the separation of church and state so that the laws we live by our never guided by religious zeal.

I think the founding fathers believed religion shouldn't interact directly with government.

Today the people from my State of Tennessee would listen to this debate, or even talk about a reference to God on our money or in the Halls of Congress or in our Pledge and say, please, let common sense and logic win the day and prevail versus legal mumbo jumbo.

The Establishment Clause prohibits government from making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community.

No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavor to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.

The problem is that you can't impose the church's teachings on all Americans as a matter of law.

The only way to be true to our American tradition is to maintain absolute governmental neutrality regarding religious beliefs and practices.

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

Neither the wording of the amendment itself nor common practice challenged the widely held belief that government guaranteed freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty.

I believe in an America where the separation of Church and State is absolute—where no Catholic prelate would tell the President, should he be a Catholic, how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners how to vote.... I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant or Jewish ... for while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew—or a Quaker—or a Unitarian—or a Baptist.