The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.
Interpretation
Church and State should operate independently without any mutual privileges or exemptions.
James A. Garfield's quote emphasizes the necessity of a strict separation between religious institutions and government affairs. He argues that if churches are allowed exemptions from taxation, they unfairly shift the financial burden onto the community, ultimately undermining the principles of equality and fairness in society.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of religion in politics, this quote can highlight the importance of maintaining a fair tax system.
Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation as in physical science it is beginning to be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics.
I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.
Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.
Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.
If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
Without theory, there are no questions.
Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all conflicts and agonies, all torture and war, all hunger, loneliness and misery, not because of some great psychological or emotional capacity, but because God's heart has become one with ours.
The state is nothing but an instrument of opression of one class by another - no less so in a democratic republic than in a monarchy.
All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures.
Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.
A totally blind process can by definition lead to anything; it can even lead to vision itself.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.