Separation Between Church And State Quotes - Page 3

• I hold that in this country there must be complete severance of Church and State; that public moneys shall not be used for the purpose of advancing any particular creed; and therefore that the public schools shall be nonsectarian and no public moneys appropriated for sectarian schools.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, School, Presidential

  Theodore Roosevelt (2005). “Fear God and Take Your Own Part”, p.361, Cosimo, Inc.

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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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• 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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• I... [am] convinced [man] has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Civil Rights, Separation Of Church And State

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (1940). “John Dewey Presents the Living Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson”

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• When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Support, Religion, Atheism

  Benjamin Franklin (1817). “The private correspondence of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D, F.R.S., &c. Minister Plenipontentiary from the United States of America at the court of France, and for the Treaty of Peace and Independence with Great Britain, &c. &c: comprising a series of letters on miscellaneous, literary, and political subjects written between the years 1753 and 1790, illustrating the memoirs of his public and private life, and developing the secret history of his political transactions and negociations”, p.69

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• The mixing of government and religion can be a threat to free government, even if no one is forced to participate.... When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion, it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Government, Religion, Atheism

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• In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind.

  Samuel Adams

  Mind, Atheism, Age

  John White, Cecil Calvert Baltimore (2d Baron), Charles Hudson, Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson, Massachusetts Historical Society (1904). “The planting of colonies in New England”

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• [N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Faith Religion

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yates's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”, p.204

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• I believe in the separation of church and state and would not use my authority to violate this principle in any way.

  Jimmy Carter

  Believe, Presidential, Church

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• We all agree that neither the Government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the Government or with political parties. We believe that the cause of good government and the cause of religion both suffer by all such interference.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  Religious, Party, Believe

  Rutherford B. Hayes' Speech in Marion, Ohio, July 31, 1875.

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• Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the United States I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments office.

  James K. Polk

  Office, Presidential, Thank God

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• I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Pain, Fear

  Thomas Paine (1819). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine”, p.4

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• Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Difficult Questions, Church, Answers

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Inspiring, Women, 4th Of July

  Declaration of Sentiments, First Woman's Rights

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• It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty.

  James Monroe

  Exercise, People, Ignorant

  James Monroe, Ian Elliot, United States. President (1817-1825 : Monroe) (1969). “James Monroe, 1758-1831: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

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• Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

  James Madison

  Government, Atheism, Liberty

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.276

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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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• It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Men, Liberty

  Letter to Benjamin Rush, 21 Apr. 1803

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• The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Yield

  Thomas Jefferson (2015). “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, p.5, Lulu.com

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• In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Fire, Separation Of Church And State, Absurd

  James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay (2016). “The Federalist Papers: The Making of the US Constitution”, p.18, Arcturus Publishing

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• ...It would be more consistent that we call [the Bible] the work of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Faith Religion, Atheism

  Thomas Paine “The Writings of Thomas Paine”, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Ignorance

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• It is not a question of religion, or of creed, or of party; it is a question of declaring and maintaining the great American principle of eternal separation between Church and State.

  Elihu Root

  Party, Atheism, Church

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• Systems of religious error have been adopted in times of ignorance. It has been the interest of tyrannical kings, popes, and prelates to maintain these errors. When the clouds of ignorance began to vanish and the people grew more enlightened, there was no other way to keep them in error but to prohibit their altering their religious opinions by severe persecuting laws. In this way persecution became general throughout Europe.

  Oliver Ellsworth

  Religious, Kings, Ignorance

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• A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that god prefers some

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Government, Belief, Separation Of Church And State

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