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"As I understand the Christian religion,
it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales,
legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them
the most bloody religion that ever existed?"
-- Letter to F. A. Van der Kamp from John Adams
"The hocus-pocus phantasy of a God, like another Cerberus, with one body and three
heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson s Works, Vol. IV, 360, Randolph's ed.
"My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the
human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and
I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."
--Abraham Lincoln, to Judge J.S. Wakefield, after Willie Lincoln's death
"Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which
facilitate the execution of mischievous projects."
-- James Madison, Letter to Bradford, January 1774, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr,
The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense."
-- Thomas Paine
"The United States is not a Christian nation any more than it is a Jewish or a
Mohammedan nation."
-- Treaty of Tripoli (1797) signed by John Adams (the original language is by Joel Barlow,
U.S. Consul.)
"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?"
-- letter to Thomas Jefferson from John Adams
"We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions shall
enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power ... we may expect
that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society."
-- Letter to Dr. Price, April 8, 1785, from John Adams
"Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at
the same time demonstrate the right to religious freedom ...The tendency of the spirit of
the age is strong toward religious liberty."
-- Letter to Richard Anderson May 27, 1823, from John Q. Adams
"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 ..."
-- The Rights of the Colonists (1771) by Samuel Adams
"I have generally been denominated a Deist, the reality of which I never disputed,
being conscious I am no Christian, except mere infant baptism makes me one; and as to
being a Deist, I know not strictly speaking, whether I am one or not."
-- preface, Reason the Only Oracle of Man by Ethan Allen
"What you should say to outsiders that a Christian has neither more nor less rights
in our Association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all
creeds and of no creeds, I myself shall not stand upon it."
-- Susan B. Anthony: A Biography, by Kathleen Barry, New York University Press, 1988,
p.310
"I have seldom met an intelligent person whose views were not narrowed and distorted
by religion."
-- James Buchanan: from Rufus K. Noyes, Views of Religion, also James A. Haught, ed., 2000
Years of Disbelief
"All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All,
separated from government, are compatible with liberty."
--Henry Clay: Address, U. S. House of Representatives, March 24, 1818, from Albert J.
Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"In this country there is no alliance between church and state, no established
religion, no tolerated religion-for toleration results from establishment-but religious
freedom guaranteed by the Constitution and consecrated by the social compact."
-- DeWitt Clinton: 1813, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on
Religious Freedom
"The sole purpose and effect of it [Article VI] is to exclude persecution and to
secure the important right of religious liberty."
-- Oliver Ellsworth: Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner (eds.), The Founder's
Constitution, University of Chicago Press, 1987, Vol. 4, p. 638, from Albert J. Menendez
and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"I am tolerant of all creeds. Yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for
political objects I would meet it by political opposition. In my view church and state
should be separate, not only in form, but fact. Religion and politics should not be
mingled."
-- Millard Fillmore: Address during 1856 Presidential election, from Albert J. Menendez
and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so; It is not so. It
is so; it is not so."
-- Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanack, 1743
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."
-- Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."
-- Benjamin Franklin
"He [the Rev. Mr. Whitefield] used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but
never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard."
-- from Franklin's Autobiography
"Indeed, when religious people quarrel about religion, or hungry people quarrel about
victuals, it looks as if they had not much of either among them."
-- (Quoted by Joseph Lewis in Benjamin Franklin-Freethinker)
"In 1850, I believe, the church property in the United States, which paid no tax,
amounted to $87 million. In 1900, without a check, it is safe to say, this property will
reach a sum exceeding $3 billion. I would suggest the taxation of all property
equally."
-- Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), 18th U.S. President, from Rufus K. Noyes, Views of
Religion, also James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief
"The United States, knowing no distinction of her own citizens on account of religion
or nationality, naturally believes in a civilization the world over which will secure the
same universal laws."
-- Ulysses S. Grant, Letter appointing the U.S. Consul at Bucharest, Rumania, December 18,
1870, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"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, Address to the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa, September 25,
1875, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the
Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the
security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from
the political concerns of the General Government."
-- Andrew Jackson, Statement refusing to proclaim a national day of fasting and prayer,
from George Seldes, The Great Quotations, p. 167, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr,
The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"[The clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be
exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon
the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800.
"Are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold, and what
we may buy?
And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be the
measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or
shall a layman, simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule of what we are to read,
and what we must believe?"
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dufief, April 19, 1814
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions
which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."
-- Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.
"No man [should] be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or
ministry whatsoever, nor [should he] be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in
his body or goods, nor ... otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief
... All men [should] be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in
matters of religion, and ... the same [should] in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect
their civil capacities."
-- Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. Papers
"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the
introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have
not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make
one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion.
Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must
approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from
this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.... If it end in a belief that there is no
god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its
exercise and in the love of others it will procure for you."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787. (original capitalization of
"god" retained)
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a
free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as
well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."
-- Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1813
"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, Jefferson's Works, Vol. IV, p. 365, Randolph's ed.
"Mr. Lincoln was not a Christian."
-- Mary Todd Lincoln
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some
instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil
authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political
tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people.
Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy
convenient allies."
-- James Madison
"In no instance have ... the churches been guardians of the liberties of
people."
-- James Madison
"A just government, instituted to perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy."
-- James Madison
"Democracy does not need the church, or the clergy."
-- James Madison
"That diabolical, hell-conceived principle of persecution rages among some, and to
their eternal infamy the clergy can furnish their quota of imps for such a business."
-- James Madison, Letter to Bradford, January 1774, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr,
The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on
trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in
the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and
persecution."
-- James Madison
"All national institutions of churches appear to me no other than human inventions,
set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
-- Thomas Paine
"There is scarcely any part of science, or anything in nature, which those imposters
and blasphemers of science, called priests, as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some
time or other, perverted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and
falsehood."
-- Thomas Paine
"Everything wonderful in appearance has been ascribed to angels, to devils, or to
saints. Everything ancient has some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of
nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting everything."
-- Thomas Paine
"No falsehood is so fatal as that which is made an article of faith."
-- Thomas Paine
"The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries
that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation,
or revealed religion."
-- Thomas Paine
"Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is
the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! this is the rubbish
called Revealed Religion!"
-- Thomas Paine
"It was under a solemn consciousness of the dangers from ecclesiastical ambition, the
bigotry of spiritual pride, and the intolerance of sects.... that it was deemed advisable
to exclude from the national government all power to act upon the subject."
-- Justice Joseph Story, quoted in M. Searle Bates, Religious Liberty: An Inquiry (1945)
p. 90, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
"Let it be henceforth proclaimed to the world that man's conscience was created free;
that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being
responsible therefore only to his God."
-- John Tyler, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, Treasury of Presidential Quotations (1964) p.
38, from Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom
(Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, Cliff Walker.)
You can find a thorough essay about the Christian Nation myth
at this site.
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