Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jeffersonwas an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He was elected the second Vice President of the United States, serving under John Adams and in 1800 was elected the third President. Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, which motivated American colonists to break from Great Britain and form a new nation. He produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national level...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionUS President
Date of Birth13 April 1743
CityShadwell, VA
CountryUnited States of America
The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy].
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
I had no idea, however, that in Pennsylvania, the cradle of toleration and freedom of religion, it [fanaticism] could have arisen to the height you describe. This must be owing to the growth of Presbyterianism. The blasphemy of the five points of Calvin, and the impossibility of defending them, render their advocates impatient of reasoning, irritable, and prone to denunciation.
I have never conceived that having been in public life required me to belie my sentiments, or to conceal them. Opinion and the just maintenance of it shall never be a crime in my view, nor bring injury on the individual. I never will by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance. I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own; a reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself.
The Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man
History teaches the young the virtues of freedom. By apprising them of the past it will enable them to judge the future.
The genius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions over this land.
Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.
State a moral case to a plowman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.
The ocean ... like the air, is the common birth-right of mankind.
I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whiskey which kills sone-third of our citizens and ruins their families.
They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people.
I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society but the people themselves.