Thomas Paine Quotes
Most popular Thomas Paine Quotes
Youth is the seed-time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.
My country is the world.
Time makes more converts than reason.
These are the times that try men's souls.
Where there is no danger, cowards are bold.
The belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
Governments arise either out of the people or over the people.
I am a farmer of thoughts, and all the crops I raise I give away.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason.
A man may write himself out of reputation when nobody else can do it.
An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.
Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny.
Such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, ever in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest; their suffering and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.
Persecution is not an original feature of any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of any law-religions, or religions established by law.
Men do not enter into society to become worse than they were before, nor to have fewer rights than they had before, but to have those rights better secured.
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
There are two distinct classes of what are called Thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.
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.
A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice.
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.
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.
