"But who is to decide who truly fears the Lord? The magistrate has no power to enforce religious demands. The laws of the First Table of the Ten Commandments are not regulations for a civil society or a political order. They belong to the realm of religion, not politics."
"The greatest crime is not developing your potential. When you do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world."
Source: Science and the Problem of Values. Book by Roger Wolcott Sperry, p. 127, 1972.
About the author
Roger Williams
Theologian, Minister
Roger Williams was a 17th-century theologian and founder of Rhode Island, known for his pioneering ideas on religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
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More quotes by Roger Williams
"It is less hurtful to compel a man to marry someone whom he does not love than to follow a religion in which he does not believe."
"God is too large to be housed under one roof."
"The sovereign power of all civil authority is founded in the consent of the people."
"There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose coming I am seeking."
"God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls."