The decision for complete ...

The decision for complete religious freedom and for separation of church and state in the eyes of the rest of the world was perhaps the most important decision reached in the New World. Everywhere in the western world of the 18th century, church and state were one; and everywhere the state maintained an established church and tried to force conformity to its dogma.
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 Henry Steele Commager

Quotes from the same author

Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them.
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 Henry Steele Commager
The greatest danger we face is not any particular kind of thought. The greatest danger we face is absence of thought.
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 Henry Steele Commager
The greatest danger that threatens us is neither heterodox thought nor orthodox thought, but the absence of thought.
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 Henry Steele Commager
History is a jangle of accidents, blunders, surprises and absurdities, and so is our knowledge of it, but if we are to report it at all we must impose some order upon it.
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 Henry Steele Commager
History, we can confidently assert, is useful in the sense that art and music, poetry and flowers, religion and philosophy are useful. Without it - as with these - life would be poorer and meaner; without it we should be denied some of those intellectual and moral experiences which give meaning and richness to life. Surely it is no accident that the study of history has been the solace of many of the noblest minds of every generation.
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 Henry Steele Commager