So I went to the internet to find the veracity of these quotes. The TL;DR version? 19 verified, one partially true, two bogus. I did a whole bunch of cut and paste and I will now press the magic button and.....
1. Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man"
-Thomas Jefferson
This is a somewhat-paraphrased version of the following:
"...those who live by mystery & charlatanerie, fearing you would render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy, the most sublime & benevolent, but most perverted system that ever shone on man, endeavored to crush your well earnt, & well deserved fame." - Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, Washington, March 21, 18011
2. ”The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion” - John Adams
ARTICLE 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli
3. "The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."
-Abraham Lincoln
4. "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. I had hoped that liberal and enlightened thought would have reconciled the Christians so that their [not our?] religious fights would not endanger the peace of Society."
~George Washington
George Washington Letter to Sir Edward Newenham, June 22, 1792
5. "It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [formation of the American governments] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven..." John Adams
Can’t find where he said it but the quote is verbatim from half a dozen or more websites…
6.Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies"
-Thomas Jefferson
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/religions_are_all_alike-founded_upon_fables_and/191423.html
7. "Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, 'This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!'"
-John Adams
John Adams
Contextomy:
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!
Exposition: This quote is sometimes cited by people who argue against religion and want to appeal to Adams' authority, or who use the quote as evidence that the Founding Fathers were opposed to religion.
Context:
Twenty times, in the course of my late Reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible Worlds, if there were no Religion in it"!!! But in this exclamati[on] I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly [Adams' boyhood parish priest and Latin school master]. Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in polite Company, I mean Hell.
Exposure: The contextomy is in quotation marks in Adams' letter, which is an important part of the context, since it shows that Adams is not endorsing that sentiment, but in fact rejecting it.
This one fails, then.
8."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 with blood for centuries."
James Madison
----James Madison, 1803, letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, quoted from James A. Haught, ed., "2000 Years of Disbelief”
9. “Strongly guarded . . . is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States” James Madison
The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment I (Religion), Document 64
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions64.html
The University of Chicago Press
10. "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
Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists
The Final Letter, as Sent
To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & 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 & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
11. "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." James Madison
http://www.uuofscv.org/about-uu/famous-uus/88-james-madison-on-religion
Lots of Madison quotes here….
12. "Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” Thomas Jefferson
http://americanhistory.si.edu/JeffersonBible/history/page-3.cfm
13. "History 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 political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose." Thomas Jefferson
http://www.religioustolerance.org/quot_rel.htm You have to scroll down to get the Jefferson quotes…
14. "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" John Adams
John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson
15. And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." James Madison
The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment I (Religion), Document 66
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions66.html
The University of Chicago Press
The Writings of James Madison. Edited by Gaillard Hunt. 9 vols. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1900--1910.
16. "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." James Madison
The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment I (Religion), Document 43
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html
The University of Chicago Press
The Papers of James Madison. Edited by William T. Hutchinson et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1962--77 (vols. 1--10); Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977--(vols. 11--).
17. "As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion……” Ben Franklin
http://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/docs/44/Letter_from_Benjamin_Franklin_to_Ezra_Stiles_1.html
18. "The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation….” Jefferson
https://books.google.ca/books?id=QxxYpdwslCYC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22The+Christian+priesthood,+finding+the+doctrines+of+Christ+leveled+to+every+understanding+and+too+plain+to+need+explanation&source=bl&ots=vOtB0VkChx&sig=2oYLAEx_18412JH1WwQb6erAiV4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBmoVChMI4ZT6oLW-yAIViLIeCh2bygA1#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Christian%20priesthood%2C%20finding%20the%20doctrines%20of%20Christ%20leveled%20to%20every%20understanding%20and%20too%20plain%20to%20need%20explanation&f=false
my, my that’s a long url
19. "What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society?…. Madison
The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment I (Religion), Document 43
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html
The University of Chicago Press
The Papers of James Madison. Edited by William T. Hutchinson et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1962--77 (vols. 1--10); Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977--(vols. 11--).
20. "No man on Earth has less taste or talent for criticism than myself, and the least and last of all should I undertake to criticize works on the Apocalypse….” Jefferson
https://books.google.ca/books?id=vvVVhCadyK4C&pg=PA395&lpg=PA395&dq=%22No+man+on+Earth+has+less+taste+or+talent+for+criticism+than+myself,+and+the+least+and+last+of+all+should+I+undertake+to+criticize+works+on+the+Apocalypse&source=bl&ots=onf0iCFDWN&sig=Eys7UkjOXM_vxFTKT80C-saeP9g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwBGoVChMIr8vnyba-yAIVBV4eCh09FAJu#v=onepage&q=%22No%20man%20on%20Earth%20has%20less%20taste%20or%20talent%20for%20criticism%20than%20myself%2C%20and%20the%20least%20and%20last%20of%20all%20should%20I%20undertake%20to%20criticize%20works%20on%20the%20Apocalypse&f=false
sorry ‘bout these long url’s
21. "The Christian god can be easily pictured as virtually the same as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious…” Jefferson
http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/christian-god-three-headed-monster
this one is a partial fail although the long quote at the Monticello site is no less critical of religion….
22. "I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies." Jefferson
This quote has been presented in two different ways--one that it is a letter from Jefferson to a mysterious Dr. Wood, and other is that it is a letter from Jefferson to Peter Carr, but no dates or other source identification in either case. There are also two versions of the same quote--the version that appears above and a second version that includes a portion of some of Jefferson's actual writings from his "Notes on Virginia. So far, nobody has been able to trace this quotation back to any actual primary source material. The trail of evidence begins and ends with Remsburg's book. No other reference to this "Letter to Dr. Woods" can presently be located.
this quote, then, is 100% bogus.
So, of 21 quotes we have 2 bogus, one partially so and 19 verified.
I did use the internet to find the citations. So kill me. There's some pretty authoritative sources like the U. of chicago and the Jefferson library, etc.
Hope you enjoy the fruits of my labours..
Dave
