"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong." Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.
"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity." Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.
"I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard Price, Jan. 8, 1789
"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814.
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own." Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814.
"The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles." John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 20, 1815.
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" John Adams, letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816.
"When philosophic reason is clear and certain by intuition or necessary induction, no subsequent revelation supported by prophecies or miracles can supersede it." John Adams, from Rufus K. Noyes, Views of Religion.
"Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it." John Adams, letter to his son, John Quincy Adams, November 13, 1816.