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We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States, and you know it, and that is all.

— Clarence Darrow

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Source, in full

quoted in William Hilleary and Oren W. Metzger, The World's Most Famous Court Trial: State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Complete Stenographic Report of the Court Test of the Tennessee Anti-evolution Act at Dayton, July 10-21, 1925, Including Speeches and Arguments of Attorneys, p. 299

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Religion

More quotes by Clarence Darrow

You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free.

Arguments in the Case of the Communist Labor Party (1920)

I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.

Chase after the truth like all hell and you’ll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat tails.

I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

All Clarence Darrow quotes →

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All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Clarence Darrow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.