Carolina QuotesCompulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. I may grow rich by art I am compelled to follow, I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment, but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve & abhor.
Thomas Jefferson Connected to the Carolinas
Source
Notes on Religion (October 1776), published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 2, p. 266
- year
- 1776
- locator
- p. 266
Cite this record
“Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from comp…” Thomas Jefferson. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-847211CCD1. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/847211ccd1
More from Thomas Jefferson
The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.
Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law [this quote is referring to English Common Law].
Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself. She seldom has received much aid from the power of great men to whom she is rarely known & seldom welcome. She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men. Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force. Truth is the proper & sufficient antagonist to error.