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•  K-Ken
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•  L-Lec

I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.
-- Andrew Jackson, 1832, statement refusing to proclaim a national day of fasting and prayer, Correspondence 4:447

Wilson: Early Presidents Not Religious

"The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected [Washington; Adams; Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; Adams; Jackson] not a one had professed a belief in Christianity....
     "Among all our presidents from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism."
-- The Reverend Doctor Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, in a sermon preached in October, 1831, first sentence quoted in John E Remsberg, Six Historic Americans, second sentence quoted in Paul F Boller, George Washington & Religion, pp. 14-15

Robert H Jackson (1892-1954)
Associate Justice, US Supreme Court (1941-1954)

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, dissenting opinion, Zorach v. Clauson, (April 28, 1952)

[I]n our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds -- that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
-- Robert H Jackson, American Communications Assn. v. Douds, 339 US 382, 438; 70 SCt. 674, 704 (1950)

Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
-- Robert H Jackson (1943), thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"

Rev Samuel M Jackson, DD, LLD
Professor of Church History, New York University

The Romans had, like other Pagan nations, a nature festival, called by them Saturnalia, and the Northern peoples had Yule; both celebrated the turn of the year from the death of winter to the life of spring -- the winter solstice. As this was an auspicious change the festival was a very joyous one.... The giving of presents and the burning of candles characterized it. Among the Northern people the lighting of a huge log in the houses of the great and with appropriate ceremonies was a feature. The Roman church finding this festival deeply intrenched in popular esteem, wisely adopted it.
-- Samuel M Jackson, Universal Cyclopedia, quoted from John E Remsberg, The Christ, p. 409

James II
King of England

It is and has of long time been our constant sense and opinion that conscience ought not to be constrained, nor people forced in matters of religion.
-- James II, Declaration of Indulgence, October 1687, from Henry Kamen, The Rise of Toleration (1967) p. 209, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

William James
American psychologist

A genuine first-hand religious experience is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses, the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman. If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others, it becomes a definite and labeled heresy. But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy; and when a religion has become an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry; the faithful live at second hand exclusively and stone the prophets in their turn. The new church, in spite of whatever human goodness it may foster, can be henceforth counted on as a staunch ally in every attempt to stifle the spontaneous religious spirit, and to stop all later bubblings of the fountain from which, in purer days, it drew its own supply of inspiration.
-- William James, Varieties of Religious Experience, quoted from Katie Bacon, "Supernatural Selection" (February, 2002: The Atlantic Monthly), an interview of Toby Lester, author of "Oh, Gods!" (February, 2002: The Atlantic Monthly), James is here quoted by Lester

Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
Austrian humanistic existentialist philosopher who is credited with linking the philosophical movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

An ideology is a complex of ideas or notions which represents itself to the thinker as an absolute truth for the interpretation of the world and his situation within it; it leads the thinker to accomplish an act of self-deception for the purpose of justification, obfuscation and evasion in some sense or other to his advantage.
-- Karl Jaspers, The Origin and Goal of History (1968), thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"

Sir James Hopwood Jeans (1877-1946)
British astronomer, physicist

The universe consists in the main not of stars but of desolate emptiness -- inconceivably vast stretches of desert space in which the presence of a star is a rare and exceptional event. ... The stars move blindly through space, and the players in the stellar blind-man's-buff are so few and far between that the chance of encountering another star is almost negligible.
-- James Hopwood Jeans, The Universe Around Us, pp. 87, 88, quoted from Woolsey Teller, The Atheism of Astronomy: A Refutation of the Theory that the Universe is Governed by Intelligence (1938)

• Check our Big List of Thomas Jefferson Quotations

[The clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173 (capitalization retained; see Positive Atheism Historical Section)

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason rather than of blind-folded fear. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.... If it end in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise and in the love of others it will procure for you.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Peter Carr, 10 Aug. 1787. (original capitalization of the word god is retained per original)

The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Jeremiah Moor, 1800

I know it will give great offense to the clergy, but the advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from them.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Levi Lincoln, 1802. ME 10:305

Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, 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, to Danbury Baptists, 1802

Our Constitution ... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the conscience of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose.
-- Thomas Jefferson, reply to New London Methodists, 1809

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to Horatio G Spafford, 1814

The hocus-pocus phantasy 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, Jefferson's Works, Vol. IV, 360

Wilson: Early Presidents Not Religious

"The founders of our nation were nearly all Infidels, and that of the presidents who had thus far been elected [Washington; Adams; Jefferson; Madison; Monroe; Adams; Jackson] not a one had professed a belief in Christianity....
     "Among all our presidents from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism."
-- The Reverend Doctor Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, in a sermon preached in October, 1831, first sentence quoted in John E Remsberg, Six Historic Americans, second sentence quoted in Paul F Boller, George Washington & Religion, pp. 14-15

Jesus
Founder-figure of the Christian religions

The Separation of Religion from Government

[21] ... Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
     -- Jesus, Matthew 22:21

Christian Charity is to be Kept Secret

[1] Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
[2] Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
[3] But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
[4] That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
     -- Jesus, Matthew 6:1-4

Why Public Prayer is Forbidden

[5] And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
[6] But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
[7] But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
[8] Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
     -- Jesus, Matthew 6:5-8

Wei Jingsheng
Jailed-then-exiled Chinese national who has dedicated his life to fighting for democracy in Communist China

We want to be masters of our own destiny. We need no gods or emperors. We do not believe in the existence of any saviour. We want to be masters of the world and not instruments used by autocrats to carry out their wild ambitions. We want a modern lifestyle and democracy for the people. Freedom and happiness are our sole objectives in accomplishing modernisation.
-- Wei Jingsheng, essay "The Fifth Modernisation: Democracy and Other Issues"

Schell: Will Not be Silenced Where Self-Censorship is the Norm

"In a society where self-censorship has been the norm, almost alone Wei Jingsheng has continued to speak out against the supression of free expression with lucidity and forthrightness. Even the full weight of the Party's persecutory powers and a decade and a half in prison have failed to silence his distinctive voice of conscience."
-- Orville Schell, quoted from the front page of the web site, "Wei Jingsheng: The Courage to Stand Alone"
 

Liu Qing: Prisoners Help Jailers Thwart Hunger Strikes

"On the sixth evening of a hunger strike I undertook at Weinan Number Two Prison in Shaanxi province, the prison police ordered a dozen or so other prisoners to use handcuffs and rope to tie me to a special metal chair. Some of the prisoners lifted my legs in the air while kneading and pressing down on my stomach, saying it was to keep me from using qigong ('chee-gung') breathing techniques to resist a feeding tube.
     "Another prisoner squeezed my throat tight and pinched my nose shut so that I was forced to open my mouth in order to gasp for breath. A prison doctor then stuck a metal brace in my mouth, twisting it open so wide that the skin on the corners of my mouth ripped open. He then clamped a pair of metal pliers onto my tongue, pulling it way out of my mouth before sliding a length of tubing into my esophagus.
     "After he had funneled a salty broth through the tube and into my stomach, the floor was covered with pools of blood and broth and my mouth was a numb and swollen mound of raw flesh. One of the prison guards even laughed at me and said: 'We can take care of things if you don't eat, but we can't guarantee your comfort.'"
-- Liu Qing, colleague of Wei Jingsheng, who went on numerous hunger strikes during his years in prison, quoted from the web site, "Wei Jingsheng: The Courage to Stand Alone"

Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad (1891-1953)
British philosopher, writer, broadcaster; initially a rationalist, he later converted to religion

It all depends what you mean by...
-- C E M Joad, answering questions on "The Brains Trust" (formerly "Any Questions"), BBC radio (1941-1948), quoted from The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999)

There are those who feel an imperative need to believe, for whom the values of a belief are proportionate not to its truth, but to its definiteness. Incapable of either admitting the existence of contrary judgments or of suspending their own, they supply the place of knowledge by turning other men’s conjectures into dogmas.
-- C E M Joad, The Recovery Of Belief (1952), thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"

Existential Crisis?

"When an express train to London made an unscheduled stop at Reading station, Cyril Joad -- having missed his own train -- hopped aboard.
"'I'm afraid you'll have to get off, sir,' the porter shouted. 'This train doesn't stop here.'
"'In that case, don't worry,' Joad replied, taking a seat. 'I'm not on it!'"
-- Anecdotage.com

John of Lackland (1199-1216)
English King of England (1167?-1216)

You happy beast, never forced to patter prayers nor dragged to Holy Mass.
-- John of Lackland, upon seeing a buck slaughtered at the end of a hunt, quoted by Matthew Paris in Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine, quoted from Famous Dead Non-theists

Pope John XXIII [Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli] (1881-1963)
Pope from 1958-1963

Also among man's rights is the right to be able to worship God in accordance with the right dictates of his own conscience, and to profess his religion both in private and in public.
-- John XXIII, Encyclical, Pacem in Terris, 1963, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

Pope John Paul II
Roman Catholic Pontiff

Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical [of Pius IX], new knowledge has led to the recognition in the theory of evolution of more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.
-- Pope John Paul II, revising Pius IX's Encyclical and substantially updating the Church's position on the teaching of evolution in an Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (October 28, 1986), quoted from Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (2001)

     • See John Paul II's Scary Limitations Regarding Evolution

I believe in the American tradition of separation of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office -- and by personal conviction -- I am sworn to uphold that tradition.
-- Lyndon Johnson, Interview, Baptist Standard, October, 1964, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.
-- Lyndon Johnson (attributed: source unknown), submitted by Carey

B C Johnson
Atheistic philosopher; author of The Atheist Debater's Handbook

The atheist, for his part, does not necessarily offer an explanation; he simply does not accept the theist's explanation. Therefore, the atheist need only demonstrate that the theist has failed to justify his position.
-- B C Johnson, The Atheist Debater's Handbook, quoted from Austin Cline, "Defining Atheism: Contemporary Atheists"

This argument arrives at its conclusion -- that the eye is designed -- by starting with a claim about the way we identify watches as designed objects. It argues that we must identify products of God's design by the same method we use to identify watches as designed. The only examples the theist can use are instances -- such as watches -- which are not thought to be designed by God. The theist's argument must begin this way because any non-hypothetical argument must proceed from what is presumed to be true. Arguments supporting Divine design will be based upon examples where design is presumed. Without assuming God's existence, the only things presumed to be designed are objects not designed by God. Hence, to start with presumed examples of God's design would be to assume just what we are attempting to prove -- namely, that there are such examples. Therefore, the only reliable method available for detecting design is the one we have successfully used to detect products not designed by God.
-- B C Johnson, The Atheist Debater's Handbook

But how do we test this supposed religious sense? We would have to already know that God exists before we could find that the religious sense was reliable in detecting him. This is because a test wouild consist of discovering whether God was in fact near when a theist sensed His presence. And to know this we would have to have some independent means of knowing that God exists.
-- B C Johnson, The Atheist Debater's Handbook, quoted from about.com, "Full Product Review: The Atheists Debater's Handbook"

For some time now atheists have been in need of firm grounds upon which to base their position. My handbook offers them this foundation. Some will look upon my efforts as a sinister attempt to further undermine social values. Actually, my purpose is to show that atheism is an intellectually respectable viewpoint despite recent efforts to prove otherwise.
-- B C Johnson, from the "Introduction" to, The Atheist Debater's Handbook

Richard Mentor Johnson (1780-1850)
Vice President of the United States (1837-1841) under Martin Van Buren

What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small. Despotic power may invade those rights, but justice still confirms them. Let the national legislature once perform an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legitimate bounds. The precedent will then be established, and the foundation laid for that ursurpation of the Divine prerogative in this country, which has been the desolating scourge to the fairest portions of the old world. Our Constitution recognises no other power than that of persuasion, for enforcing religious observances. Let the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by deeds of benevolence -- by Christian meekness -- by lives of temperance and holiness. Let them combine their efforts to instruct the ignorant -- to relieve the widow and the orphan -- to promulgate to the world the gospel of their Savior, recommending its precepts by their habitual example: government will find its legitimate object in protecting them. It cannot oppose them, and they will not need its aid. Their moral influence will then do infinitely more to advance the true interests of religion, than any measures which they may call on Congress to enact.
-- Richard Mentor Johnson, Report on the Transportation of Mail on Sundays, 1829. from Church & State in American History, 2nd Edition, ed. by John F Wilson and Donald L Drakeman, (1987) p. 104, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

Samuel Johnson ["Dr. Johnson."] (1709-1784)
British writer and lexicographer

Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull.
-- Samuel Johnson, in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 21 July 1763 (ed. 1791), quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations

All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.
-- Samuel Johnson, speaking of the afterlife, in, James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, vol. 3, 31 March 1778 (ed. 1791), quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
-- Samuel Johnson, in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 7 April 1775 (1791). Ambrose Bierce, in his Devil's Dictionary, noted: "In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first." Quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations.

Patrick Johnston
California Assemblyman

The didactic function of the Catholic Church is worthy of consideration and respect. But, in a pluralistic society, it cannot dictate the judgments that others of good conscience make with respect to these issues [abortion].
-- Patrick Johnston, San Francisco Examiner, July, 1989, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

The Rev Jenkin Lloyd Jones
Chicago clergyman

Are there not thousands who have loved virtue who did not accept Jesus Christ in any supernatural or miraculous fashion, who, if they knew of him at all, knew of him only as the Nazarene peasant -- the man Jesus. Such was Abraham Lincoln, the tender prophet of the gospel of good will upon earth.
-- Jenkin Lloyd Jones, sermon delivered in All Souls Church on December 9, 1888, quoted from Franklin Steiner, The Religious Beleifs of Our Presidents, p. 141

Sunand Tryambak Joshi (b. 1958)
India-born freelance writer and editor, author of numerous studies on literary criticism, philosophy, and race relations

God's existence needs to be established independently before he can be brought into account for causation; it cannot be assumed at the start.
-- S T Joshi, countering G K Chesterton's somewhat unique creationistic views inn, God's Defenders (Prometheus: 2003) page 74

I myself am not comfortable with the notion of secularists congregating in groups, except perhaps for defensive purposes: the last thing a secularist should wish to do is to act like a religion, with its rigid hierarchies, its suppression of divergent opinion, and, above all, its ruthless attempts (now mercifully inhibited by laws) to outlaw "heresy" by brute force. Opinions must be changed, one at a time if necessary, but if there are those who wish to persist in religious belief, they should certainly be allowed to do so.
-- S T Joshi, "Introduction," Atheism: A Reader (2000), p. 20-21

The atheist, agnostic, or secularist ... should insist on the need to engage in a meaningful debate on the entire issue of the truth or falsity (or probability or improbability) of religious tenets, without being subject to accusations of impiety, immorality, impoliteness, or any of the other smokescreens used by the pious to deflect attention from the central issues at hand.
-- S T Joshi, "Introduction," Atheism: A Reader (2000), p. 20

The atheist, agnostic, or secularist ... should guard against the encroachment of religion in areas where it has no place, and in particular the control of education by religious authority. The attempts to ban the teaching of evolution or other scientific theories -- a feeble echo of medieval church tyranny and hostility to learning, but an echo nonetheless are serious threats to freedom of inquiry and should be vigorously combated.
-- S T Joshi, "Introduction," Atheism: A Reader (2000), p. 20

The atheist, agnostic, or secularist ... should not be cowed by exaggerated sensitivity to people's religious beliefs and fail to speak vigorously and pointedly when the devout put forth arguments manifestly contrary to all the acquired knowledge of the past two or three millennia. Those who advocate a piece of folly like the theory of an "intelligent creator" should be held accountable for their folly; they have no right to be offended for being called fools until they establish that they are not in fact fools. Religiously inclined writers like Stephen L Carter may plead that "respect" should be accorded to religious views in public discourse, but he neglects to demonstrate that those views are worthy of respect. All secularists -- scientists, literary figures, even politicians (if there are any such with the requisite courage) -- should speak out on the issue when the opportunity presents itself.
-- S T Joshi, "Introduction," Atheism: A Reader (2000), p. 20

Rev Lynne Josselyn
Chairperson, Maine Council of Churches

It is a basic tenet of our faith that goodness and moral action should be freely chosen and not imposed by some edict of the state.
-- Lynne Josselyn, May 1986. Her name was, for years, spelled here as "Posselyn," per our original source. Unable to find any other mention of such an allegedly notable figure as late as summer, 2007, we began asking some questions of various luminaries then living in the area of Portland, Maine. Although it was no easy deal, our ever-helpful fellow-humans ministering to the needy in the opposiite corner of the United States from where I grew up came through for us, finding and then verifying for us information to the effect that Rev Lynne Josselyn, retured and now living in Limestone, Maine, uttered the quip recited above.

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941)
Irish novelist and poet, whose psychological perceptions and innovative literary techniques make him one of the most influential writers of the 20th century

There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being.
-- James Joyce, letter, 22 Nov. 1902, in which Joyce declared his intention of leaving Ireland for good; from a private collection (an inaccurate text, taken from a typescript of this letter, is printed in Letters of James Joyce, vol. 1, 1957). Quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations.

Broken heart. A pump after all, pumping thousands of gallons of blood every day. One fine day it gets bunged up and there you are.... Old rusty pumps: damn the thing else. The resurrection and the life. Once you are dead you are dead.
-- James Joyce, Ulysses, quoted from Peter Heinegg, ed, Mortalist: Readings on the Meaning of Life (Prometheus:2003), back cover

He comes into the world God knows how, walks on the water, gets out of his grave and goes up off the Hill of Howth. What drivel is this?
-- James Joyce: Stephen Daedalus, in Stephen Hero, ch. 21 (1944; rev. 1975). Quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations.

And Jesus was a Jew too. Your god. He was a Jew like me. And so was his father.
-- James Joyce: Leopold Bloom, in Ulysses, quoted from Robert Anton Wilson, "Schrödinger's Jew" (16 June 2001)

I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul.
-- James Joyce, "Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages," lecture, 27 April 1907, Università Popolare Triestina (published in Critical Writings, sct. 35, ed. by Ellsworth Mason and Richard Ellmann, 1959). Quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)
Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology

The word "belief" is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it -- I don’t need to believe it.
-- Carl Jung, thanks to Laird Wilcox, ed, "The Degeneration of Belief"

We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself ... We know nothing of man, far too little. His psyche should be studied because we are the origin of all coming evil.
-- Carl Jung, BBC television interview (1959), quoted from Encarta Book of Quotations (1999)

The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.
-- Carl Jung (attributed: source unknown)

Justin Martyr (100?-165?)
Philosopher, theologian, and an early apologist for Christianity, he sought to reconcile Christian doctrine with Pagan culture

When we say that the Word, who is the first born of God, was produced without sexual union, and that he, Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven; we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter [Zeus].
-- Justin Martyr, First Apology, ch. xxi, admitting the analogies between Christianity and Paganism

In that we say he [Christ] made whole the lame, the paralytic, and those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar to the deeds said to have been done by Esculapius.
- Justin Martyr, - First Apology, ch. xxi, comparing the miraculous cures ascribed to Christ with those allegedly performed by the Greek god Esculapius

The Subtle Fulmination of the Encircled Sea

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