Thomas Paine Quotes
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Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with wh...
By Thomas Paine
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
By Thomas Paine
In the progress of politics, as in the common occurrences of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we have travelled over, but freque...
By Thomas Paine
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
By Thomas Paine
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
By Thomas Paine
It can only be by blinding the understanding of man, and making him believe that government is some wonderful mysterious thing, that excessive revenues are obtained. Monarchy is well calculated to ensure this end. It is the popery of government; a thing kept up to amuse the ignorant, and quiet them into taxes.
By Thomas Paine
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
By Thomas Paine
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
By Thomas Paine
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
By Thomas Paine
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
By Thomas Paine
We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.
By Thomas Paine
He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.
By Thomas Paine
Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part.
By Thomas Paine
Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS -- our inferior one varies with the place.
By Thomas Paine
The moral duty of man consists of imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures. Everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty.
By Thomas Paine
I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.
By Thomas Paine
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
By Thomas Paine
Whenever we read the obscene stories, voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortous executions, the unrelenting vindictivenes, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistant that we called it the word of a Demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind, and, for my part, I sincerly detest it as I detest everything that is cruel.
By Thomas Paine
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon
By Thomas Paine
When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir.
By Thomas Paine
What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
By Thomas Paine
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value.
By Thomas Paine
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly... it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.
By Thomas Paine
War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.
By Thomas Paine
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
By Thomas Paine
To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.
By Thomas Paine
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
By Thomas Paine