Thomas Jefferson Christianity Quotes & Sayings

The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart. — Thomas Jefferson

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. — Thomas Jefferson

We could have the most amazing leaders, the best policies and the strictest laws; however, if we the people don't care about what the leaders do or about following laws, nothing good can happen. — Chetan Bhagat

Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial, mundane system. — Thomas Jefferson

Truth can stand by itself ... If there be but one right [religion], and [Christianity] that one, we should wish to see the nine hundred and ninety-nine wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. — Thomas Jefferson

Europe has a long and tragic history of mostly domestic terrorism. — Gijs De Vries

To the corruptions of christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence, and believing he never claimed any other. — Thomas Jefferson

When we see religion split into so many thousand of sects, and I may say Christianity itself divided into its thousands also, who are disputing, anathematizing and where the laws permit burning and torturing one another for abstractions which no one of them understand, and which are indeed beyond the comprehension of the human mind, into which of the chambers of this Bedlam would a man wish to thrust himself.
[Letter to George Logan, 12 November 1816] — Thomas Jefferson

I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. — Thomas Jefferson

How can a hard and fast view of a world that is never hard and fast possibly be accurate? — Steve Hagen

If equity and human natural reason were allowed there would be no law, there would be no lawyers. — Christina Stead

Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself. — Thomas Jefferson

During the nineteenth, twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries, certain politically active religious movements sought to have the United States declared - officially, if possible, but at least unofficially - a "Christian nation." This was an attempt to reverse the church-state separation principles and achievements of such great Founders as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Roger Williams, who was more religiously devout than just about anyone living in later centuries, opposed all attempts to call a particular nation "Christian," just as he opposed the terms "Christendom" and "Christian world." His arguments included a profound analysis of the importance of separation of church and state as well as a deep religious understanding of what Christianity is. — Alan E. Johnson

Jefferson also founded the first intentionally secularized university in America. His vision for the University of Virginia was for education finally free from traditional Christian dogma. He had a disdain for the influence that institutional Christianity had on education. At the University of Virginia there was no Christian curriculum and the school had no chaplain. — Daryl C. Cornett

[Christianity is] the most ... perverted system that ever shone on man. — Thomas Jefferson

My long-time view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts-the religion of Jesus and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jefferson attempted to excise the Pauline parts of the New Testament. There wasn't much left when he was done, but it was an inspiring document. — Carl Sagan

If, therefore, from the settlement of the Saxons, to the introduction of Christianity among them, that system of religion could not be a part of the common law, because they were not yet Christians; and if, having their laws from that period to the close of the common law, we are able to find among them no such act of adoption; we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.
['Whether Christianity is Part of the Common Law?', letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, from Monticello, February 10, 1814] — Thomas Jefferson

Our actions may be impeded by them, but there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. — Marcus Aurelius

I have examined all the known superstitions of the world,and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men women and children since the introduction of Christianity,have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth. — Thomas Jefferson

I am bold to Say that neither you nor I, will live to See the Course which 'the Wonders of the Times' will take. Many Years, and perhaps Centuries must pass, before the current will acquire a Settled direction... yet Platonic, Pythagoric, Hindoo, and cabalistic Christianity, which is Catholic Christianity, and which has prevailed for 1,500 years, has received a mortal wound, of which the monster must finally die. Yet so strong is his constitution, that he may endure for centuries before he expires.

{Letter to Thomas Jefferson, July 16 1814} — John Adams

The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy]. — Thomas Jefferson