“The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.”

The gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation in life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations!

By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.

The Constitution of the Republic should make a Special privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.

The art of healing is like an unroofed temple, uncovered at the top and cracked at the foundation.

If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into all the world would have been unnecessary. The perfect morality of the gospel rests upon the doctrine which, though often controverted has never been refuted: I mean the vicarious life and death of the Son of God.

The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.

Mirth, and even cheerfulness, when employed as remedies in low spirits, are like hot water to a frozen limb.

Terror acts powerfully upon the body, through the medium of the mind, and should be employed in the cure of madness.

Without Virtue there can be no liberty

[W]here there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.

Dreams are nothing but incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or imperfect sleep.

The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.

Scandal dies sooner of itself, than we could kill it.

We have not only multiplied diseases, but we have made them more fatal.

Without the restraints of religion and social worship, men become savages much sooner than savages become civilized by means of religion and civil government.

I have always considered Christianity as the strong ground of republicanism.

Does not the passage of Moses and the Israelites into the Holy Land yield incomparably more poetic variety than the voyages of Ulysses or Aeneas?

As to women, the Islamic faith has given women rights that are equal to or more than the rights given them in the Old Testament and the Bible.

I’m not a fan of ‘write what you know.’ If you don’t know, find out. I knew nothing about the Bible before I started writing ‘The Year of Living Biblically.’ That was kind of the point – to learn.

I am putting together a secular bible. My Genesis is when the apple falls on Newton’s head.

Taking the Bible too literally is a mistake. It should be read as a guidebook of wisdom and insight.

I have a problem with people who take the Constitution loosely and the Bible literally.

The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on rocks or bars.

If the Bible and the microscope do not agree, the microscope is wrong.