Separation Of Church And State Quotes - Page 6

• 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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• The sole purpose and effect of it is to exclude persecution and to secure the important right of religious liberty.

  Oliver Ellsworth

  Religious, Important, Atheism

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• I believe that prayer in public schools should be voluntary. It is difficult for me to see how religious exercises can be a requirement in public schools, given our Constitutional requirement of separation of church and state. I feel that the highly desirable goal of religious education must be principally the responsibility of church and home. I do not believe that public education should show any hostility toward religion, and neither should it inhibit voluntary participation, if it does not interfere with the educational process.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Religious, Prayer, Educational

  Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford (1979). “The Presidential Campaign 1976: President Gerald R. Ford. 2. v”

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• I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

  Al Smith

  Believe, Exercise, Law

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• On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Fighting, Faith Religion

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1816-1826”, p.42, Cosimo, Inc.

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• 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 Catholic) how to act. I do not speak for my church on public matters - and the church does not speak for me.

  John F. Kennedy

  Believe, America, Catholic

  Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

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• I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wise, Religious, Prayer

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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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• Without God, there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience... without God, there is a coarsening of the society; without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

  Ronald Reagan

  God, Long, Democracy

  Remarks at a Dallas Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, delivered 23 August 1984 at Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX

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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 Between Church And State

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• The impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Thinking, Church

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1771 - 1779, the Summary View, and the Declaration of Independence”, p.439, Cosimo, Inc.

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• We are teaching the world the great truth that Governments do better without Kings & Nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson that Religion Flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

  James Madison

  Religious, Kings, Teaching

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

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• In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Life, Birthday

  "Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness".

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• No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Father, Men

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature. . . . [In] the formation of the American governments . . . it will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of heaven. . . . These governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.

  John Adams

  Simple, Government, America

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• I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Change, Religious, Religion

  Thomas Jefferson, Brett F. Woods (2009). “Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution : Annotated Correspondence”, p.143, Algora Publishing

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• I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process.

  Barry Goldwater

  Inspirational, Life, Hurt

  Barry Morris Goldwater, C. C. Goldwater (2007). “The Conscience of a Conservative”, p.129, Princeton University Press

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• Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  School, Forever, Political

  Speech to the Society of the Army of Tennessee, archive.org. 1875.

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• The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.

  James A. Garfield

  Divorce, Organization, Community

  Remark during Congressional debate. "Congressional Record", 43rd Congress, 1st Session, p. 5384, memory.loc.gov. June 22, 1874.

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• The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.

  Hugo Black

  Mean, Government, Law

  "Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1". Writing for the court, 1947.

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• The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and in-grafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Rights

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.172, Cambridge University Press

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• Liberalism is a creation of the seventeenth century, fathered by British philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). For Locke, liberalism means limited government, the rule of law, due process, liberty, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, separation of church and state, and separation of government powers into branches that oversee each other's authority.

  Peter Boghossian

  Mean, Law, Government

  Peter Boghossian (2013). “A Manual for Creating Atheists”, p.129, Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)

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• They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not
  meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Country, America, Peaceful

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Henry Reeve, Francis Bowen, Patrick Renshaw (1998). “Democracy in America”, p.121, Wordsworth Editions

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• Church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact - religion and politics should not be mingled.

  Millard Fillmore

  Church, Facts, Separation

  Millard Fillmore (1856). “The Ovation to Mr. Fillmore. Speeches of Mr. Fillmore”, p.2

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• The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?

  John Adams

  Kings, Race, Faith Religion

  John Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson (1971). “The Adams-Jefferson letters: the complete correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams”, Touchstone

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