When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, 1948
Rulers ought to employ a page to repeat to them every morning: “See that you do not torment anyone on account of his religious opinions, and that you do not extend the power of the sword to touch the conscience.”
-Joseph Glanville, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1661
If liberty is to be saved, it will not be by the doubters, the men of science, or the materialists; it will be by religious conviction, by the faith of individuals, who believe that God wills man to be free but also pure.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 1825
“Baptism is for the captives the ransom price, the remission of debts, the death of sin, the regeneration of the soul, a shining garment, an unbreakable seal, the vehicle to heaven, the public agent of the Kindgdom, the gift of adoption.”