we are all children of the same Father

If [the] empire of superstition and hypocrisy should be overthrown happy indeed will it be for the world; but if all religion and all morality should be over-thrown with it, what advantage will be gained? The doctrine of human equality is founded entirely in the Christian doctrine that we are all children of the same Father, all accountable to Him for our conduct to one another, all equally bound to respect each other’s self love.


John Adams written note in the margin’s of Mary Wollstonecraft’s French Revolution, as quoted in John Adams by David McCullough. Simon and Schuster, 2001. p.619