“The United States is a generically religious society. That is, in the United States it's not important which religion you adhere to, as long as you have one.”
Frankfurt Book Fair speech (2003)
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Susan Sontag 168
American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist 1933–2004Related quotes

Meeting with Japanese reporters at the U.S. embassy, November 11, 2009 http://www.businessinsider.com/geithner-we-care-about-a-strong-dollar-really-2009-11

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
This statement was made by an official representative of the U.S. during Washington's presidency, but is actually a line from the English version of the Treaty of Tripoli ( Article 11 http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1796t.asp#art11), which was signed at Tripoli on November 4, 1796, and at Algiers on January 3, 1797. It received ratification unanimously from the U.S. Senate on June 7, 1797 and was signed into law by John Adams. The wording of the treaty is by Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul, who had served as Washington's chaplain, and was also a good friend of Paine and Jefferson; Article 11 of it reads:
::As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,—as it has in itself no character or enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,—and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Misattributed

Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 12 : The West, Civilizations, and Civilization, § 1 : The Renewal Of The West?, p. 306
The Naked Communist (1958)

American Al-Qaeda Operative Adam Gadahn in a Message to President Bush: Your People Will Experience Things That Will Make You Forget the Horrors of September 11, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Virginia Tech http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1464.htm May 2007

Fourth State of the Union Address (6 December 1904)
1900s

“You don't have to be smart to act — look at the outgoing president of the United States.”
Remark (December 1988), reported in Brewer's Cinema (1995)