We have no right to prejudice another in his civil enjoyments because he is of another church.
Interpretation
Discrimination based on religious beliefs is unjust and detrimental to civil society.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of respecting individuals' rights to their own religious beliefs. It argues that civil liberties should not be compromised or taken away based on one's religious affiliation, advocating for tolerance and equality among diverse beliefs in a just society.
In practice
During a seminar on civil rights, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of religious tolerance.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Conviction is not merely an opinion. It is something rooted so deeply in the conscience that to change a conviction would be to change the very essence of who you are.
Regard as free not those whose status makes them outwardly free, but those who are free in their character and conduct. For we should not call men truly free when they are wicked and dissolute, since they are slaves to worldly passions. Freedom and happiness of soul consist in genuine purity and detachment from transitory things.
...we must first scrutinize thoroughly anything appearing in our hearts or any saying suggested to us. Has it come purified from the divine and heavenly fire of the Holy Spirit? Or does it lean toward Jewish superstition? Is its surface piety something which has come down from bloated worldly philosophy? We must examine this most carefully, doing as the apostle bids us: 'Do not believe in every spirit, but make sure to find out if spirits are from God'.
It is the message, not the man, which is important to the Sufis.
And I hope I'm forgiven for Thug Livin when I die.
To be a philosophical sceptic is, in a man of letters, the first and most essential to being a sound, believing Christian.
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