"I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives.... It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read. By the same test the world must judge me. But this does not satisfy the priesthood. They must have a positive, a declared assent to all their interested absurdities. * * * The artificial structures they have built on the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolt those who think for themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Mrs. M. Harrison Smith, August 6, 1816.
From Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds.,
The Harper Book of American Quotations
(New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 492.
From Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds.,
The Harper Book of American Quotations
(New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 492.
Now that Mitt Romney has answered that one, we have another qualifying question for all the presidential candidates: Do you believe in fairies? If you do, clap your hands.
1 comment:
Wait. Do you mean to imply fairies don't exist? What about the tooth fairy? Any politician who doesn't believe in the tooth fairy is not fit for office.
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