Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state'... is absolutely essential in a free society.
Thomas JeffersonOur liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
Thomas JeffersonHistory, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.
Thomas JeffersonIn our own native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it. For the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our fore-fathers and ourselves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before.
Thomas Jefferson