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Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in…

Quote byThomas Jefferson · 1743–1826

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Notes on Religion (October 1776), published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 2, p. 266.

English (original)

Compulsion in religion is distinguished peculiarly from compulsion in every other thing. I may grow rich by art I am compelled to follow, I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment, but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve & abhor.

— Thomas Jefferson

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