Religious Liberty Quotes

• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

  John Adams

  Religious, Revenge, Passion

  John Adams (1854). “The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations”, p.229

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• Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim tribute to patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness - these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. . . . reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.

  George Washington

  Religious, Business, Men

  "George Washington’s Farewell Address". "The Life of George Washington. Special Edition for Schools", ed. Robert Faulkner and Paul Carrese, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, oll.libertyfund.org. 2000.

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• We are gonna to have to choose as a nation between the homosexual agenda and freedom because the two cannot coexist. Every advance of the homosexual agenda, comes at the expense of liberty, particularly religious liberty.

  Bryan Fischer

  Religious, Two, Liberty

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  Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

  John Adams

  Bible, God, Religious

  John Adams, Charles Francis Adams (1854). “Works: with a life of the author”, p.229

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• That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of the conscience; and it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.

  Patrick Henry

  Christian, 4th Of July, Exercise

  Virginia Bill of Rights article 16 (1776)

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• This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.

  John Adams

  Religious, Atheist, If There Is A God

  John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams”

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

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Religious, Thoughtful, Liberty

  Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 1985.

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• In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Country, Religious, Atheist

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, Volume 7: 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814”, p.248, Princeton University Press

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• The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Jesus, Atheist

  Thomas Jefferson (1984). “Jefferson: Writings”, p.1970, Library of America

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• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Government

  Notes on the State of Virginia, query 17 (1781 - 1785)

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• Our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.

  Samuel Adams

  Religious, Freedom, Religion

  Samuel Adams' Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

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• Because we hold it for 'a fundamental and undeniable truth', that religion or 'the duty which we owe to our Creator' and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.

  James Madison

  Religion, Religious Truth, Fundamentals

  James Madison (1787). “The Writings of James Madison: 1783-1787”, p.184

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

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Government, Political

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans”, p.400

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• I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the States.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Exercise, Government

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers”, p.106

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• The opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous falacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty...

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Suffering

  Thomas Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, founders.archives.gov. June 18, 1779.

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• I have often expressed my sentiments, that every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.

  George Washington

  Religious, Men, Liberty

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1838). “The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private”, p.155

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• Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption; all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.

  James Madison

  Religious, Ignorance, Liberty

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• 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

  Religious, Exercise, Government

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.36, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• When they [the Church] have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself, removed the Candlestick, etc., and made His Garden a wilderness as it is this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and Paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world, and all that be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the World.

  Roger Williams

  Wall, Garden, Church

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• Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can exist apart from religious principle.

  George Washington

  Religious, Truth, Freedom

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• The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate.

  James Madison

  Inspirational, Life, Religious

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting Usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity.

  James Madison

  Christian, Religious, Heart

  James Madison (1965). “The forging of American federalism: selected writings of James Madison”

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• Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption

  James Madison

  Ignorance, Religious Truth, Corruption

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.90, University of Virginia Press

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• Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.

  James Madison

  Government, Religion, Atheism

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• Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States, is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect.

  James Madison

  Religious, Rights, Perfect

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.179

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