Thomas Paine Quotes

Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which th...

Time makes more converts than reason.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by ...

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must like men undergo the fatigue of supporting ...

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in pe...

I choose my life to this free. I choose my life to be this way

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evi...

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

A hereditary monarch is as absurd a position as a hereditary doctor or mathematician.

That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of N...

What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; it's dearness only that gives everthing its value...

When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to st...

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear...

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this ...

Calumny is a vice of curious constitution trying to kill it keeps it alive leave it to itself and ...

Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of d...

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

It is, perhaps, impossible to proportion exactly the price of labor to the profits it produces; and ...

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, butthe tyrant, stand forth! Every...

One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disap...

In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the cons...

But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be a...

Could the straggling thoughts of individuals be collected, they would frequently form materials for ...

Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Ex...

Is the power who is jealous of our prosperity, a proper power to govern us?

And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prep...

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins ...

Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by so...

Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness. Society promotes our happiness p...

Common sense will tell us, thatthe power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, them...

It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.

But with respect to religion itself, without regard to names, and as directing itself from the unive...

There is an unnatural unfitness in an aristocracy to be legislators for a nation. Their ideas of dis...

Every child born in the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. The world is th...

if every one is left to judge of his own religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is wron...

In stating these matters, I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but tha...

It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself. Nature has been kinder to Mr...

There are matters in that book, said to be done by the express command of God, that are as shocking ...

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, th...

Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.

He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyran...

'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approv...

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species of t...

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue b...

Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.

To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had...

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion but it is always the strongly marked feature ...

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one.

A man may write himself out of reputation when nobody else can do it.

The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap we esteem too ligh...

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supportin...

To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take ...

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Whatever has a tendency to promote the civil intercourse of nations by an exchange of benefits is a ...

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too ligh...

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, lovi...

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.

Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such...

The world is my country all mankind are my brethren and to do good is my religion.

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other t...

War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calcu...

The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ ...

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not ori...

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

My own mind is my own church.

The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place...

We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of indust...

Reputation is what men and women think of us character is what God and angels know of us.

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by ...

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting ...

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all ...

That government is best which governs least.

The harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply we esteem too li...

Kill the king but spare the man.

That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of n...

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my c...

I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.If we suppose a large fa...

For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.

These are the times that try men's souls.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its valu...

The story of Eve and the serpent, and of Noah and his ark, drops to a level with the Arabian Tales, ...

That which is now called learning, was not learning originally. Learning does not consist, as the sc...

The Jews have made him [Yahweh] the assassin of the human species, to make room for the religion of ...

The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have affl...

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God...