“It is moreover to weaken in those who profess this Religion a pious confidence in its innate excellence and the patronage of its Author; and to foster in those who still reject it, a suspicion that its friends are too conscious of its fallacies to trust it to its own merits.”
§ 6
1780s, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments (1785)
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James Madison 145
4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817) 1751–1836Related quotes

Source: The Exposition of 1851: Views Of The Industry, The Science, and the Government Of England, 1851, p. 225-226

N. F. Blake, in Whitney F. Bolton (ed.) The Middle Ages (London: Sphere, 1970) p. 381.
Criticism
“Life without prejudice,” p. 9.
Life Without Prejudice (1965)
“Truth disdains the aid of the law for its defence–it will stand upon its own merit.”
The Rights of Conscience Inalienable (1791)
Context: Truth disdains the aid of the law for its defence–it will stand upon its own merit. … It is error, and error alone, that needs human support; and whenever men fly to the law or sword to protect their system of religion, and force it upon others, it is evident that they have something in their system that will not bear the light, and stand upon the basis of truth. (p. 185)

Closing words, trans. G. A. Williamson
The Jewish War (c. 75 CE)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 226.