We've staked our future on our ability to follow the Ten Commandments with all our heart.

...several of the first presidents, including Jefferson and Madison, generally refused to issue public prayers, despite importunings to do so. Under pressure, Madison relented in the War Of 1812, but held to his belief that chaplains shouldn't be appointed to the military or be allowed to open Congress.

[I]t is more convenient to prevent the passage of a law, than to declare it void after it has passed.

Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves.

We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no man's right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society, and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance.

There is not a more important and fundamental principle in legislation, than that the ways and means ought always to face the public engagements; that our appropriations should ever go hand in hand with our promises.

Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.