Thomas Paine Quotes

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

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

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

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

[A]ll churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.

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

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

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

Religion is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything that is cruel.

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

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

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

Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.

Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.

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

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

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

These are the times that try men's souls.

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

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

There are two distinct classes of men - those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes.

The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater miracle than the creation itself, and his own existence?

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.

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

...It would be more consistent that we call [the Bible] the work of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness.

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

The slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.

Men should not petition for rights, but take them

A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support.

When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.

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

The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax

Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.

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.

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 a chariot of light from the region of the day, the Goddess of Liberty came. She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, the plant she named Liberty Tree.

Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.

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

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

That government is best which governs least.

The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.

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

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.

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

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

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

When extraordinary power and extraordinary pay are allotted to any individual in a government, he becomes the center, round which every kind of corruption generates and forms.

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.