"In every country and 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.
It is easier to acquire wealth and power by this combination
than by deserving them, and to effect this,
they have perverted the purest religion
ever preached to man into mystery and jargon,
unintelligible to all mankind, and
therefore the safer for their purposes." | by: | Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President |
Source: | letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/P?mtj:2:./temp/~ammem_TZzS:: |
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