A Man’s Reasoning . . .

• “Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Smith, 1822
  

Vigilant, Active, Brave

• “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” –Patrick Henry
  

Difference of Opinion

• “Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle.” –Thomas Jefferson
  

Groveling . . .

• “It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” –John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756
  

A Manly Spirit . . .

• “Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness.” –James Madison, Federalist No. 14, 1787
  

Day of Humiliation and Prayer

• My proclamation of the 25^th instant Thursday, the 25^th day of next month, was recommended as a day for special humiliation and prayer in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. But whereas my attention has since been called to the fact that the day aforesaid is sacred to large numbers of Christians as one of rejoicing for the Ascension of the Savior, I proclaim the first day of June ~Andrew Johnson
  

We Owe Our Creator . . .

• Religion, or the Duty which we owe our Creator . . . can be directed only by reason . . . and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other . . . ~Virginia Bill of Rights, Article 16
  

Church Services In Capitol

• Non-Denominational church services were held in the U.S. Captitol from 1800-1868. The podium of the Speaker of the House was used as the preacher’s pulpit. The U.S. Marine Band played at one Sunday service, but because of the marble acoustics, this was discontinued. Capitol Hill Presbyterian, First Congregational Church and the First Presbyterian Church met in the Capitol, and communion services were held in the Treasury Building. In 1806, Reverend James Laurie preached to an overflow crowd in the U.S. Supreme Court Chamber ~Library of Congress
  

The Only Foundation . . .

• I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a Republic is to be laid on the foundation of religion. Without this there can be no virtue. And without virtue, there can be no Liberty. And Liberty is the object and life of all Republican Governments . . . but the religion I mean to recommend in this place is that of the New Testament ~Benjamin Rush
  

God’s Gift To Humanity . . .

• Liberty is not America’s gift to the world, it is God’s gift to humanity ~George W. Bush