“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect.”

Letter to William Bradford (1 April 1774) Addressing proposed use of governmental land for churches
1770s
Source: Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Volume 3

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprize, every expanded prospect." by James Madison?
James Madison photo
James Madison 145
4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817) 1751–1836

Related quotes

Alice Moore Hubbard photo

“Robert Ingersoll preferred to every political and social honor the privilege of freeing humanity from the shackles of bondage and fear. He knew no holier thing than truth.”

Alice Moore Hubbard (1861–1915) American activist

Introduction.
An American Bible (1912)
Context: Robert Ingersoll preferred to every political and social honor the privilege of freeing humanity from the shackles of bondage and fear. He knew no holier thing than truth. He preferred using his own reason to receiving popular applause or approbation. His keen wit, clear brain and merciless sarcasm uncrowned the King of Superstition and made him a puppet in the court of reason.

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Samuel Johnson photo
Reginald Heber photo

“Though every great prospect pleases,
And only man is vile.”

Reginald Heber (1783–1826) English clergyman

"Missionary Hymn", st. 2 (1819).
Hymns

Thaddeus Stevens photo

“I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs”

Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) American politician

Statement at the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention (July 1837), quoted in Thaddeus Stevens, Scourge of the South (1959) by Fawn M. Brodie, p. 63
1830s
Context: I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs, and witness the rapture which would excite them in the first dance of their freedom.

Deng Feng-Zhou photo

“Problems arise from shackles imposed by ourselves.
Our minds are entangled by trifles.
Take my advice to shake off all the worries and focus on finding yourself a way out,
bide your time and every cloud has a silver lining.”

Deng Feng-Zhou (1949) Chinese poet, Local history writer, Taoist Neidan academics and Environmentalist.

(zh-TW) 枷鎖纏身困擾滋,紅塵瑣事縛如絲。
勸君滌慮尋方向,可待雲開日照時。

"Struggling" (奮發)

Source: Deng Feng-Zhou, "Deng Feng-Zhou Classical Chinese Poetry Anthology". Volume 6, Tainan, 2018: 82.

Sarada Devi photo

“Everything, husband, wife, or even the body, is only illusory. These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from these bondages, you will never be able to go to the other shore of the world.”

Sarada Devi (1853–1920) Hindu religious figure, spiritual consort of Ramakrishna

[Swami Tapasyananda, Swami Nikhilananda, Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother; Life and Conversations, 261]

William Blake photo
Reginald Heber photo

“What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile.”

Reginald Heber (1783–1826) English clergyman

Missionary Hymn ("Java" in one version); reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 487.
Hymns

Related topics