America

A Jesuit Weekly In a pluralistic society a fundamental assumption of public policy is the recognition that everything immoral need not be declared illegal. The public morality that is expressed in law reflects a consensus derived from public debate.... Social realities as well as religious principles must be taken into account in judging the wisdom of any legislation. Citizens who come to different conclusions are not necessarily immoral or unChristian. The tendency to so brand one's political opponents suggests a kind of moral fascism.
-- Editorial, September 13, 1980 (from The Great Quotations On Religious Freedom compiled by Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr.)

The Atlanta Constitution

Americans can rest assured that their right to pray, each according to his own belief and conscience, is just as firmly guaranteed today as it was when the founding fathers wrote the Constitution and provided for the separation of church and state and for religious freedom.
-- Editorial, November 9. 1971, hailing the defeat of the Wylie Prayer Amendment in the US House of Representatives., from Menendez and Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The framers of the Bill of Rights were right when they foresaw the need to keep church and government interests strictly separate, and that becomes more obvious with each incursion by the uncomfortably parochial Reagan administration. The Founding Fathers understood the dangers: When religion and state embrace, it is the state that gives the bear hug.
-- Editorial, January 26, 1985., from Menendez and Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Baptist Standard

Those quick to mix Christianity with the purely political are doing a disservice to religion.
-- Editorial, August 4, 1976, from Menendez and Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Iconoclast

Until doubt began, progress was impossible.
-- motto of the Iconoclast, from James A Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief

The truth is that no profession of faith or lack of faith has anything to do with a man's morals.... Away with the bugbear that to be good we must be pious.
-- 1870, published by Lester F Ward, founder of American sociology, from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief

The Chicago Tribune

The principle of church-state separation may sometimes be inconvenient or costly to one side or the other. But there is one great thing about that wall: it works for both sides.
-- Editorial, June 12, 1985, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Christian Science Monitor

Overriding all other considerations is the wise foresight of the framers of the Constitution in ensuring the freedom of religion by keeping the state out of it.
-- Editorial opposing tuition tax credits, February 26, 1973, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

It must be remembered that America is an increasingly pluralistic society, an amalgam of different races, cultures, nationalities, religions. In these conditions Americans can only be grateful for the Constitution's wisdom of erecting a wall of separation between church and state and leaving religious practice to individual conscience.
     Religious tolerance is best safeguarded when the state injects itself the least.
-- Editorial, October 27, 1980, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Eugene Register-Guard
City of Eugene, Oregon

A public school teacher occupies a position of great trust, with potentially great influence over young people whose attendance is compulsory. A person should not be allowed to take advantage of such a position to promote his or her own -- or any -- religion.
-- Editorial, January 1984, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

Fresno (California) Bee

The framers of the Constitution recognized that in a pluralistic society, any state involvement in religion, as promoter or regulator, can be a source of irreconcilable tensions, if not violence.
-- Editorial, December 5, 1985, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Herald Review
Seventh-Day Adventist magazine

The testimony seems conclusive.... The majority of the great men of the world have always rejected Christ, and, according to the Scriptures, always will; and the efforts of Christians to make it appear that certain great men who never professed Christianity were in reality Christians, is simply saying that Christianity cannot stand on its own merits, but must have the support of great names to entitle it to favorable consideration.
-- in 1890, responding to persistent (and false) rumors that Abraham Lincoln was a pious Christian or that he had converted to Christianity shortly before his death, quoted in Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beliefs of Our Presidents, p. 139

The Living Church
Episcopal magazine

Christians who care enough about their faith to want it properly taught to their children in the course of their education should care enough to pay for it, however heavy the burden.... When any of our tax money is used, directly or indirectly, to subsidize any religious teaching without our consent, government is coercing us in this realm where coercion does not belong.
-- Editorial, April 21, 1974, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Bark
Described by Time as 'the New Yorker for dog lovers'

Dog is my co-pilot.
-- motto, The Bark Magazine, spoofing the popular Christian bumper sticker, "God is my co-pilot," quoted from Joel Stern, "It's a Dog's Life" (Time: May. 19, 2003)

The Subtle Fulmination of the Encircled Sea

Please Feel Free
to Grab a Quote
(or Maybe Three)

Grab some quotes to embellish your web site,
to use as filler for your group's newsletter,
or to add force to your Letters to the Editor.

Use them to introduce the chapters of a book or
accent the index or margins of a special project.

Poster your wall!    Graffiti your (own) fence.
Sticker your car!!
Poster your wall.    Graffiti your (own) fence!!!

That's what this list is for!
That's why I made it!

In using this resource, however, keep in mind that
it's someone's life's work, a hedge against old age.

If you decide to build your own online
collection, then find some new material!
Dig up quips that haven't yet been posted!

There's something to be said
for doing your own work.