“Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error.”

—  Thomas Jefferson

Letter to James Ogilvie (4 August 1811)
1810s

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 "Politics, like religion, hold up the torches of martyrdom to the reformers of error." by Thomas Jefferson?
Thomas Jefferson photo
Thomas Jefferson 456
3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826

Related quotes

Glenn Beck photo

“Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just — radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the Reform Judaism, it is more about politics.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

2011-02-22
The Glenn Beck Program
Premiere Radio Network
Jeremy
Schulman
Glenn Beck Smears 35 Percent Of American Jews
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201102220038
2011-02-28
2010s, 2011

Godfrey Higgins photo

“[A] less conventional member of the squirearchy… a political radical, reforming county magistrate and idiosyncratic historian of religions.”

Godfrey Higgins (1772–1833) British archaeologist

Yas Parish Registers of All Saint's, Owston.
About

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, — never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves. Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom. An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The Great Infidels (1881)
Context: All the martyrs in the history of the world are not sufficient to establish the correctness of an opinion. Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, — never the correctness of his thought. Things are true or false in themselves. Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom. An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth.

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell photo

“I am in my politics for reform and nothing but reform.”

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792–1878) leading Whig and Liberal politician who served as Prime Minister on two occasions

Source: Letter to Lady Holland, January 1822

Samuel Smiles photo

“Mere political reform will not cure the manifold evils which now afflict society. There requires a social reform, a domestic reform, an individual reform.”

Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) Scottish author

As quoted in Samuel Smiles and the Victorian Work Ethic (1987) by Timothy Travers, p. 162.

Horatius Bonar photo

“Sincerity and truth form the basis of every virtue.
Be what thou seemest; live thy creed;
Hold up to earth the torch divine;
Be what thou prayest to be made;
Let the great Master's steps be thine.”

Horatius Bonar (1808–1889) British minister and poet

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 553.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk photo

“The torch that the Turkish nation holds in her hand and in her mind, while marching on the road of progress and civilisation, is positive sciences.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey

Speech on the tenth anniversary of the Republic, 1933 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atat%C3%BCrk%27s_Tenth_Year_Speech

Franz von Papen photo

“Himmler hated the church. He and Bormann were the two people who influenced Hitler most. When I spoke to Hitler in the beginning he agreed with me and said that no state could be governed without religion. In Mein Kampf he said that a man was a fool if he destroyed the religion of the people. Hitler also made the statement that the political reform should not be a religious reform.”

Franz von Papen (1879–1969) German chancellor

To Leon Goldensohn (30 March 1946). Quoted in "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.
1940s

Paul Kurtz photo

“Skepticism is part of reflection… In religion and ethics, in politics, you have to be skeptical of claims that people make. It applies to all parts of life. Your own beliefs and the beliefs of others, and your willingness to examine these, to see if they hold up under scrutiny.”

Paul Kurtz (1925–2012) American professor of philosophy

9:40–10:10
Exuberant Skepticism (2012)

Related topics