The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.
THOMAS PAINEI consider the war of America against Britain as the country’s war, the public’s war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
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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.
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It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.
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It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.
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We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
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It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.
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From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms! Through the land let the sound of it flee; Let the far and the near all unite, with a cheer, In defense of our Liberty Tree.
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There are two distinct classes of men – those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes.
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We repose an unwise confidence in any government, or in any men, when we invest them officially with too much, or an unnecessary quantity of, discretionary power.
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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.
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Character is much easier kept than recovered.
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Every proprietor owes to the community a ground-rent for the land which he holds.
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The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.
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It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.
THOMAS PAINE -
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
THOMAS PAINE -
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
THOMAS PAINE -
I consider the war of America against Britain as the country’s war, the public’s war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
THOMAS PAINE -
Government is not a trade which any man or body of men has a right to set up and exercise for his own emolument, but is altogether a trust, in right of those by whom that trust is delegated, and by whom it is always resumable. It has of itself no rights; they are altogether duties.
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These are the times that try men’s souls.
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The slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.
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To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
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Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
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It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
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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.
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A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.
THOMAS PAINE