Thomas Paine Quotes

The animals to whom nature has given the faculty we call cunning know always when to use it, and use it wisely; but when man descends to cunning he blunders and betrays.

It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human invention; it is only the application of them that is human.

There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.

The times that tried men's souls are over-and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.

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

Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches.

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

The NT, compared with the Old, is like a farce of one act.

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

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

The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind.

Action and care will in time wear down the strongest frame, but guilt and melancholy are poisons of quick dispatch.

Titles do not count with posterity.

Calumny is a vice of curious constitution; trying to kill it keeps it alive; leave it to itself and it will die a natural death.

What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.

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

THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD: And it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.

The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty.

I detest the Bible as I detest everything that is cruel.

I disbelieve all holy men and holy books.

Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.

Before anything can be reasoned upon to a conclusion, certain facts, principles, or data, to reason from, must be established, admitted, or denied.

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

I die content, I die for the liberty of my country.

There is no greater tyranny than that of the dead over the living.

Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!

The United States of America will sound as pompously in the world or in history as The Kingdom of Great Britain.

I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all. It is only those who have not thought that appear to agree.

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

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

Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know—the Church does neither.

Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters.

The Almighty implanted in us these inextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of His image in our heart. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals.

It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.

The nearer any disease approaches to a crisis, the nearer it is to a cure. Danger and deliverance make their advances together; and it is only in the last push that one or the other takes the lead.

Ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!

It was needless, after this, to say that all was vanity and vexation of spirit; for it is impossible to derive happiness from the company of those whom we deprive of happiness.

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

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

We hold the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance.

Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority; perfect equality affords no temptation.

There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human hatred.

A man does not serve God when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve

There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state. The construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity.

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

Kill the king but spare the man.

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

Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.

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.

But if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they not present themselves every hour to our eyes?