Verified Church-State Separation Quotes

Quote mining is common on both sides of the church-state separation debate, and I have my doubts about how authoritative a quote is when removed from its context (even assuming the quotation is not a forgery, a misattribution, or a paraphrase, which is the case unfortunately often). That's why I'm compiling this list of quotes that look interesting, have been verified as accurate to my satisfaction, and have their contexts available for examination on the web.

I obviously have an opinion on this subject, but my angle is that, regardless of the debate's outcome (and I don't see it being resolved in my lifetime), one of the most important aspects of any discussion is to be working with accurate data. I think it would almost be better to lose honestly than to win with the help of fraudulent information.

That said, I should point out that there are much larger collections of relevant quotes than can be found here, and many of them probably list sources as well. This page is more for my own use than anything else. Without further ado, here are the verified quotations by author and date.


[T]he government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion[.]
1796 Treaty with Tripoli, ratified by President John Adams, the House of Representatives, and the Senate

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say that there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1784

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof', thus building a wall of separation between church and state.
--Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Danbury Baptist assn., 1802

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law.
--Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part 1, 1791

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
--Thomas Paine, Dissertations on First Principles of Government, 1795


Suspect quote?

I haven't been able to locate the following quote's source online except as a reference from James Haught's 2000 Years of Disbelief. I suspect I'll have to reserve judgment on this one until I'm able to check out the book myself.

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries. -James Madison?

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