If the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, [then and only then will truth]prevail over fanaticism. — Thomas Jefferson
Driven from every other corner of the earth, freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country as their last asylum. — Samuel Adams
Freedom of religion does not entitle your religion to have a privileged position within the public sphere. — Gad Saad
The day that this country ceases to be free for irreligion it will cease to be free for religion - except for the sect that can win political power. — Robert H. Jackson
Freedom is the right to live as we wish. — Epictetus
The right to unite freely and to separate freely is the first and most important of all political rights. — Mikhail Bakunin
The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty. — James Monroe
Sound morals, religious liberty, and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with all true and lasting happiness. — William Henry Harrison
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. — Ronald Reagan
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. — John Milton
Founding Fathers Religious Freedom Quotes
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson
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
I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning. — Benjamin Franklin
Fools take the knife and stab people in the back. The wise take a knife, cut the cord and free themselves from the fools.
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can exist apart from religious principle. — George Washington
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. — Benjamin Franklin
[The founding fathers] believed that freedom of expression included religious views and beliefs, so long as the government did not force people to worship in a particular matter and remain neutral on what those views and beliefs were. — John Cornyn
Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.
There are lots of people out there who think they know the truth about God and religion, but does anybody really know for sure? That's why the founding fathers built freedom of religious belief into the structure of this nation, so that everybody could make up their minds for themselves. — Jesse Ventura
Rights Religious Freedom Quotes
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. — Voltaire
Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty. — Harry S. Truman
No, you can't deny women their basic rights and pretend it's about your 'religious freedom'. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs. — Barack Obama
Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
While anyone who practices a religion has the right to their own religious truths, it doesn't give them the right to violate the welfare of another human or an animal. So, where necessary, it is the task of the government to intervene and curb the freedom of religion. — Marianne Thieme
I support the rights of all people to practice their religious beliefs privately, but I oppose the idea of respecting religions. In truth, I have no respect for any religion. I believe religion is not compatible with human rights, women's rights, or freedom of expression. — Taslima Nasrin
Making Saudi Arabia a world judge on women's rights and religious freedom would be like naming a pyromaniac as the town fire chief. — Hillel Neuer
One of the greatest mental freedoms is truly not caring what anyone else thinks of you.
If religious freedom is to endure in America, the responsibility for teaching religion to public school children must be left to the homes and churches of our land, where this responsibility rightfully belongs. It must not be assumed by the government through the agency of the public school system. — Sam Ervin
It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man. — Pope Leo XIII
Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs — Barack Obama
People keep framing this as a religious freedom issue, but there's a difference between practising your religion - which everyone has the right to do - and rubbing your religion in people's faces as a triumphalist political statement, which is what's happening here. — Pat Condell
Freedom Of Religious Expression Quotes
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
In Scotland, Catholics have raised their voices against sectarianism and intolerance directed against the Church. Clearly, these actions show that freedom of religious expression, a basic human right, is not upheld in our midst as widely and as completely as it should be. — Keith O'Brien
It seems that the right of freedom of speech that was enshrined in numerous constitutions is now under attack by religious institutions. — Salman Rushdie
A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.
Freedom of religion means the right of the individual to choose and to adhere to whichever religious beliefs he may prefer, to join with others in religious associations to express these beliefs, and to incur no civil disabilities because of his choice. — Joseph Leon Blau
Marriage can be a religious thing. It can also be a secular thing. And guess what? Not everyone in the world is of the same religion. Preventing gay people from getting married is not an expression of religious freedom. It's an expression of religious oppression. — Hank Green
I am very concerned about the lack of tolerance coming from those who say they want to see more tolerance in the public square. We've seen some of those individuals are very intolerant of religious freedom and expression. — Steve Daines
Nothing happens by accident. God is preparing you for great things.
In France, religion had been considered the enemy of liberty, but in America, as George Washington expressed it, religion and morality were the 'twin pillars of freedom.' — D. James Kennedy
Religious freedom in an open society has the best prospects of flourishing to the extent that it expresses itself as freedom of religious inquiry. — Sidney Hook
Anything that can hurt the convictions of another, particularly religious convictions, must be avoided. Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility. I condemn all manifest provocation that might dangerously fan passions. — Jacques Chirac
Somehow freedom for religious expression has become freedom from religious expression. — Dinesh D'Souza
What Is Freedom Quotes
What is it you want to change? Your hair, your face, your body? Why? For God is in love with all those things and he might weep when they are gone. — St. Catherine of Siena
If yet your blood does not rage, then it is water that flows in your veins. For what is the flush of youth, if it is not of service to the motherland. — Chandra Shekhar Azad
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. — Jim Morrison
I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.
I don't mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom.
It is a timeless spiritual truth: release attachment to outcomes,
deep inside yourself, you'll feel good no matter what. — Jiddu Krishnamurti
If it is right for men to fight for their freedom, and God knows what the human race would be like today if men had not, since time began, fought for their freedom, then it is right for women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of the children they bear. — Emmeline Pankhurst
Freedom is what we all seek, but it's what we do with that freedom that ultimately defines our character. In the end, a man's character cements his fate, good or bad. — Sonny Barger
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought — Abraham Lincoln
Life is a sum of all your choices". So, what are you doing today? — Albert Camus
It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism. — Noam Chomsky
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty. — Chief Joseph
To achieve world government, it is necessary to remove from the minds of men, their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas. — Brock Chisholm
This I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. — John Steinbeck
WIth freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy.
People need to free their minds of racial prejudice and believe in equality for all and freedom regardless of race. It would be a good thing if all people were treated equally and justly and not be discriminated against because of race or religion or anything that makes them different from others. — Rosa Parks
In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. — Mahatma Gandhi
Religion is like a pair of shoes.....Find one that fits for you, but don't make me wear your shoes. — George Carlin
Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong.
As my ancestors are free from slavery, I am free from the slavery of religion. — Butterfly McQueen
I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man. — Thomas Jefferson
Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under protection of habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. — Thomas Jefferson
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. — Albert Einstein
Religious Liberty Quotes
Remember civil and religious liberty always go together: if the foundation of the one be sapped, the other will fall of course. — Alexander Hamilton
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. — Thomas Jefferson
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. — James Madison
I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want.
The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally. — Patrick Pearse
The only foundation for . . . a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. — Benjamin Rush
Let us by wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. — James Monroe
An enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. — Roger Williams
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
This shift from the Judeo-Christian basis for law and the shift away from the restraints of the Constitution automatically militates against religious liberty. — Francis Schaeffer
Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support. — Thomas Jefferson
Religious Rights Quotes
The Church must take right ground in regard to politics... Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as part of their duty to God... God will bless or curse this nation, according to the course Christians take in politics. — Charles Grandison Finney
If your Bible tells you that gay people ought not be married in your church, don't tell them they can't be married at city hall. Marriage is a civil rite as well a civil right, and we can't let religious bigotry close the door to justice to anyone. — Julian Bond
In the Islamic Republic the rights of the religious minorities are respectfully regarded. — Ruhollah Khomeini
Being veterans of the struggle to push back against fundamentalist Christians, American liberals are well acquainted with the pitfalls of the neoconservative flirtation with the religious-right. — Maajid Nawaz
I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it. — Billy Graham
I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice. — John F. Kennedy
I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others. — Thomas Jefferson
The hocus-pocus phantasm 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
We're not at a point in time to be taking chances with children and young people in the church. The Holy Father himself said... there is no room in the priesthood or religious life for someone who has abused a child. I think he's right. — Roger Mahony
A woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. — Barry Goldwater
Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth and in all gentleness and in all freedom from anger and forbearance and steadfastness and patient endurance and purity. — Polycarp
A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. — Samuel Adams
Because with every action, comment, conversation, we have the choice to invite Heaven or Hell to Earth. — Rob Bell
The right to freedom is the gift of God Almighty....The rights of the Colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading, and carefully studying the institutes of the great Lawgiver and head of the Christian Church: which are to be found clearly written and promuligated in the New Testament. — Samuel Adams
The Christian stands, not under the dictatorship of a legalistic 'you ought,' but in the magnetic field of Christian Freedom, under the empowering of the 'You may.' — Helmut Thielicke
Without Virtue there can be no liberty — Benjamin Rush
How could they say that my religion, Islam was a 'race hate' religion after all the plunder and enslavement and domination of my people by white Christians in the name of white supremacy? — Muhammad Ali
I regard the principle of conscription of life as a flat contradiction of all our cherished ideals of individual freedom, democratic liberty and Christian teaching. — Roger Nash Baldwin
Everything is a gift from God: it is only by recognizing this crucial dependence on the Creator that we will find freedom and peace. — Pope Benedict XVI
Political Freedom Quotes
Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others. — Coretta Scott King
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. — Abraham Lincoln
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. — Hermann Goring
"Freedom" in capitalist countries exists only for those who possess money and who consequently hold power. — Nikita Khrushchev
How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century. — Aneurin Bevan
Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I'll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I'm not backing off. — Fannie Lou Hamer
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
It is unthinkable that a national government which represents women should ignore the issue of the right of all women to political freedom. — Lucy Burns
We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. — James Madison
People always have been and they always will be stupid victims of deceit and self-deception in politics. — Vladimir Lenin
Religious Tolerance Quotes
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
Let us have love and more love; a love that melts all opposition, a love that conquers all foes, a love that sweeps away all barriers, a love that aboundeth in charity, a large-heartedness, tolerance, forgiveness and noble striving, a love that triumphs over all obstacles. — Abdu'l-Bahá
Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival. — Rene Dubos
We in the United States should be all the more thankful for the freedom and religious tolerance we enjoy. And we should always remember the lessons learned from the Holocaust, in hopes we stay vigilant against such inhumanity now and in the future. — Charlie Dent
To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To you, respect. — Oren Arnold
And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. The superstition of the people was not embittered theological rancor. — Edward Gibbon
Positive secularism is not tolerance of all religions, but it is the total denial of religious beliefs: it is the emergence of homogeneous human outlook which is based upon verifiable facts of life. — Goparaju Ramachandra Rao
Secular societies establish tolerance by being equally non-accommodating toward all religious demands within the public sphere. — Gad Saad
Religious tolerance is something we should all practice; however, there have been more persecution and atrocities committed in the name of religion and religious freedom than anything else. — Walter Koenig
We live in an age in which only one prejudice is tolerated - anti-Christian bigotry... Today, the only group you can hold up to public mockery is Christians. Attacks on the Church and Christianity are common. — D. James Kennedy
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men. — Voltaire
Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom. — Benjamin Rush
Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationship. — A. Philip Randolph
Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives. — Barry Goldwater
The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom. — Rudy Giuliani
Painting is almost like a religious experience, which should go on and on. Age just gives you the freedom to do some things you've never done before. Great work can come at any stage of your life. — Will Barnet
And the whole world, the whole world that believes in freedom, whether you're talking about personal freedom, economic freedom, religious freedom, they look to the United States for leadership; and you're part of that leadership. — Don Nickles
Religion, a mediaeval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. — Salman Rushdie
The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice. — Emma Goldman
I believe that the most essential element of our defense of freedom is our insistence on speaking out for the cause of religious liberty. — Ronald Reagan
No citizen enjoys genuine freedom of religious conviction until the state is indifferent to every form of religious outlook from Atheism to Zoroastrianism. — Harold Laski
To be risen with Christ means not only that one has a choice and that one may live by a higher law - the law of grace and love - but that one must do so. The first obligation of the Christian is to maintain their freedom from all superstitions, all blind taboos and religious formalities, indeed from all empty forms of legalism. — Thomas Merton
Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired. — Robert Kennedy
Satan...[plans] to destroy liberty and freedom ~ economic, political, and religious, and to set up in place thereof the greatest, most widespread, and most complete tyranny that has ever oppressed men. He is working under such perfect disguise that many do not recognize either him or his methods. — Heber J. Grant
It is the West that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians, recognizing and defending their rights. The notions of freedom and human rights were present at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, but have gradually come to fruition through supreme acts of self-criticism. — Ibn Warraq
Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society. — Thomas Jefferson
Free inquiry entails recognition of civil liberties as integral to its pursuit, that is, a free press, freedom of communication, the right to organize opposition parties and to join voluntary associations, and freedom to cultivate and publish the fruits of scientific, philosophical, artistic, literary, moral and religious freedom. — Paul Kurtz
Here we now have the freedom of all religions, and I hope that never again will we have a repetition of religious bigotry, as we have had in certain periods of our own history. There is no room for that kind of foolishness here. — Harry S. Truman
No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever. — Thomas Jefferson
...Freedom arises from the multiplicity of sects, which prevades America and which is the best and only security for religious liberty in any society. For where there is such a variety of sects, there cannot be a majority of any one sect to oppress and persecute the rest. — James Madison
In Conclusion
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