Thomas Paine quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Thomas Paine on Wise Famous Quotes.

A Democracy is the most vile form of government there is!

I know not whether taxes are raised to fight wars, or wars are fought in order to raise taxes.

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.

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

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

I love the man that smiles at trouble: that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.

Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin.

Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind.

To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be meanly right.

I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God.

To reason with goverments, as they have existed for ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that reforms can be expected

These are the times that try men's souls.

"Government," says Swift, "is a plain thing, and fitted to the capacity of many heads."

Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor.

If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

The more we bestow the richer we become.

For freemen like brothers agree; With one spirit endured, they one friendship pursued, And their temple was Liberty Tree

Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.

And this manner of speaking of the Almighty, as one would speak of a man, is consistent with nothing but the stupidity of the Bible.

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

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

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

War ought to be no man's wish.

All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.

The stupid texts of the Bible - from which, be the talents of the preacher what they may, only stupid sermons can be preached.

The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.

From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom,

When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous.

The Christian religion begins with a dream and ends with a murder.

Long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT,

It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

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

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

He, who survives his reputation, lives out of despite himself, like a man listening to his own reproach.

It will be proper to take a review of the several sources from which governments have arisen, and on which they have been founded.

One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.

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

Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.

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

Most wise men, in their private sentiments, have ever treated hereditary right with contempt; yet

It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies; yet our present numbers are sufficient to repel the force of all the world

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.

It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.

No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.

It is a faculty of the human mind to become what it contemplates, and to act in unison with its object.

Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information.

You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.

Prejudice will fall in a combat with interest.

The more acquisitions the government makes abroad, the more taxes the people have to pay at home.

Every person of learning is finally his own teacher.

Common sense will tell us, that
the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the
most improper to defend us.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

My country is wherever liberty lives.

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

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

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

The Allwise Creator hath been dishonored by being made the author of fable and the human mind degraded by believing it.

My mind is my own church.

THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD:

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

The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.

The Bible is such a book of lies and contradictions there is no knowing which part to believe or whether any.

Whether we sleep or wake, the vast machinery of the universe still goes on.

A share in two revolutions is living to some purpose.

Give me liberty, or give me death.

Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off.

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

Wisdom is not the purchase of a day

It is a general idea, that when taxes are once laid on, they are never taken off.

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.

What is called a republic, is not any particular form of government ... it is naturally opposed to the word monarchy, which means arbitrary power.

But from the errors of other nations let us learn wisdom, and lay hold of the present opportunity - to begin government at the right end.

The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.

To take away (voting) is to reduce a man to slavery.

The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.

for no man expects to be loved himself for his crime or for his enmity.

A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men.

The fate of Charles I has only made kings more subtle, not more just.

Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'tis time to part.

In mourning the plumage, he forgot the dying bird

Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.

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

It is a duty incumbent on every true deist, that he vindicates the moral justice of God against the calumnies of the Bible.

Virtue is not hereditary.

It is a position not to be controverted, that the earth ... was and ever would have continued to be, the COMMON PROPERTY OF THE HUMAN RACE.

A government or an administration, who means and acts honestly, has nothing to fear, and consequently has nothing to conceal;

The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.

Governments arise either out of the people or over the people.

It is unpleasant to see character throw itself away.

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.

From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?

The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

The birthday of a new world is at hand.

What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.

Evils, like poisons, have their uses, and there are diseases which no other remedy can reach.

Mystery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that obscures truth, and represents it in distortion.

The period of debate is closed. Arms, as a last resource, must decide the contest.

It is always to be taken for granted, that those who oppose an equality of rights never mean the exclusion should take place on themselves.