“Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be most deprecated.”
—GEORGE WASHINGTON
“The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly mono-polized learning. And ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your eyes and hand, and fly into your face and eyes.”
—JOHN ADAMS
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
—JOHN ADAMS
“All religions have something good in them: but the ambition and avarice of priests and politicians have introduced into all of them, monstrous corruptions and abuses, and none more cruel bloody and horrible than into the Christian.”
—JOHN ADAMS
“On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, 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
“Were I to be the founder of a new sect, I would call them Apriarians, and after the example of the bees advise them to extract the honey of every sect.”
—THOMAS JEFFERSON
“The neglect of public worship in this city is an increasing evil, and the indifference to all religion throughout the whole country portends no good.”
—JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
“It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.”
—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
“It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.”
—CALVIN COOLIDGE