“There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach — it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.”

— William Howard Taft

Speech to the Young Men's Hebrew Association in New York (20 December 1914).

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 "There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defe…" by William Howard Taft?

William Howard Taft 32

American politician, 27th President of the United States (i… 1857–1930

Related quotes

“At first your religious beliefs are those which were foisted upon you; gradually your religious beliefs become those you deserve.”

Karlheinz Deschner (1924–2014) German writer and activist

Jeder hat zunächst den Gottesglauben, den man ihm aufgeschwatzt hat; aber allmählich hat er den, den er verdient.
Bissige Aphorismen, Rowohlt 1994, ISBN 3-499-22061-X, S. 14

“A society cannot be Islamic if it expels the civil and religious Laws of Islam from its codes and customs, so that nothing of Islam is left except rites and ceremonials.”

Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) Egyptian author, educator, Islamic theorist, poet, and politician

Source: Social Justice in Islam (1953), p. 26

“And we did so based on the belief that while these transitions will be hard and take time, societies based upon democracy and openness and the dignity of the individual will ultimately be more stable, more prosperous, and more peaceful.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks by President Obama in Address to the United Nations General Assembly (24 September 2013) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/24/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nations-general-assembly
2013

“It is society which, fashioning us in its image, fills us with religious, political, and moral beliefs that control our actions.”

Émile Durkheim book Suicide

Suicide (1897)

“No society can possibly be built upon a denial of individual freedom. It is contrary to the very nature of man. Just as a man will not grow horns or a tail, so will he not exist as man if he has no mind of his own. In reality even those who do not believe in the liberty of the individual believe in their own.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict by Joan V. Bondurant (1965) University of California Press, Berkeley: CA, p. 174. Harijan (1 February 1942) p. 27
1940s

“The Imamah (religious leadership) and ummah (religious community) shed light on…the principle of progress [which society should strive towards], of reforming the relations of society, ideology, belief, life, and the pulling and driving of society and the souls, thoughts, and minds that make up this society to the best possible form. The ummah is not a society where human individuals feel a stagnant form of confort and happiness, or feel a free, carelss sense of irresponsibility and make static comfort the goal of life.”

Ali Shariati (1933–1977) Iranian academic and activist

On the Role of Leadership in the West vs Role of Leadership in Shi'ism (date of speech unknown). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0evSkdzXF_4
Speeches: On Religious Government and Islamic Leadership

“A genuinely democratic society requires a secular ethos: one that does not equate morality with religion, stigmatize atheists, defer to religious interests and aims over others or make religious belief an informal qualification for public office.”

Ellen Willis (1941–2006) writer, activist

"Freedom from Religion", The Nation (19 February 2001) http://www.thenation.com/article/freedom-religion/
Context: A genuinely democratic society requires a secular ethos: one that does not equate morality with religion, stigmatize atheists, defer to religious interests and aims over others or make religious belief an informal qualification for public office. Of course, secularism in the latter sense is not mandated by the First Amendment. It's a matter of sensibility, not law.