Stephen

“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 of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Mohammedan] 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.

[Adams submitted and signed the Treaty of Tripoli, 1797]”
― John Adams, Thoughts on government applicable to the present state of the American colonies.: Philadelphia, Printed by John Dunlap, M,DCC,LXXXVI.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
― Theodore Parker

“I am suspicious of all the things that the average people believes.”
― H.L. Mencken

“Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.”
― H. L. Mencken