Sigmund Freud Quotes

Faith comes not by compulsion, but it is a matter of free choice; therefore, no one has the authority to compel anyone else in such matters, nor to coerce him with new laws

It is certainly no part of religion to compel religion.

Isn't this country wonderful because you get the right to believe what you want to? But where we all get into trouble is when some people feel they have the right to inflict their beliefs on others.

We cannot command the religion of our subjects, since no-one can be forced to believe against his will.

At its core, America’s public religion is strongest when it speaks softly, most influential when it is the least prideful, and most convincing when it is the least coercive. We are not, and should never become, a theocracy; we are, instead, a democracy of believers—and crucial to a democracy of believers is fighting to the death to protect the right of anyone to choose not to believe. Crusades are for the insecure, literalism for the weak. Faith that is forced on others is not faith—conviction does not come from compulsion.

Freedom of religion also implies the right not to have or profess a religion. This is sometimes overlooked. It is a sad commentary on religion that religionists, probably quite well-meaning at times, have throughout history tried to force fellow human beings into a required religious mold. Apart from the very wrong theological assumptions involved, this is a flagrant violation of the dignity of the human person. Coerced religion is demeaning and of little value.

It is and has of long time been our constant sense and opinion that conscience ought not to be constrained, nor people forced in matters of religion.

We allow none ... to be dragged to the alters unwillingly.

The Turks do not compel anyone to renounce their faith and do not try hard to persuade anyone.

I don't force anything onto other people, because you'll never get a good satanist out of forcing somebody to be one.

It's not my job to force people to believe things.

I believe that everybody has the right to believe what they want to believe and to knock somebody's faith and religion is foolish, whatever it may be - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism.

It is curious that atheists have proved to be so intolerant of those who have a faith.

There are lots of people out there who think they know the truth about God and religion, but does anybody really know for sure? That's why the founding fathers built freedom of religious belief into the structure of this nation, so that everybody could make up their minds for themselves.

I don't think my religious convictions should be held against me.

I think people can believe in anything.

So the question is, First, Whether the civil magistrate hath power to force men in things religious to do contrary to their conscience, and if they will not to punish them in their goods, liberties, or lives? this we hold in the negative.

God requireth not a uniformity of religion.

As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another only to scoff, I conclude, in accordance with what has gone before, that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits; each would then obey God freely with his whole heart, while nothing would be publicly honoured save justice and charity.

We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to practice faith or not, and those who believe are free and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief.

Men are free and claim the right to think for themselves in religious as well as political matters.

From the dissensions among Sects themselves arise necessarily a right of choosing and necessity of deliberating to which we will conform. But if we choose for ourselves, we must allow others to choose also, and so reciprocally, this establishes religious liberty.

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness

The man or the country that fights priestcraft and priests is to my mind striking deeper for freedom than can be struck anywhere.

Religious liberty is primarily a man's liberty to profess a faith different from that of the dominant religion, and to unite in public worship with those who share his faith.