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

Thomas Paine

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
THOMAS PAINE

Dare Himself Honesty Offend
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
THOMAS PAINE

Errors Mistake Philosophy Truth Wisdom
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
THOMAS PAINE

Administration Argument Death Medicine Person Reason
All churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.
THOMAS PAINE

Fear Human Invention Power Profit Religion
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
THOMAS PAINE

Government Ignorance Kind Man Trade
Men should not petition for rights, but take them.
THOMAS PAINE

Action Man Right
When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to [profess] things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
THOMAS PAINE

Believe Corruption Crime Himself Man Mindset Preparation Prostitution
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.
THOMAS PAINE

Enemy Establishment Himself Liberty Oppression Reach Security Violate
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
THOMAS PAINE

Appearance Habit Right Thinking Wrong
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.
THOMAS PAINE

Extraordinary Generation Government Kind Pay Power
In Deism our reason and our belief become happily united. The wonderful structure of the universe, and everything we behold in the system of the creation, prove to us, far better than books can do, the existence of a God, and at the same time proclaim His attributes.
THOMAS PAINE

Belief Creation Existence Happiness Himself Reason Time Unity Universe Wonderful
Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
THOMAS PAINE

Crime Ignorance Knowledge Responsibility
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.
THOMAS PAINE

Confidence Government Man Necessary Power
Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.
THOMAS PAINE

People Reason Shock Surprise
Practical religion consists in doing good: and the only way of serving God is that of endeavoring to make His creation happy. All preaching that has not this for its object is nonsense and hypocrisy.
THOMAS PAINE

Creation God Goodness Happiness Hypocrisy Practice Service
Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.
THOMAS PAINE

Discover Equality Existence Gift Impossible Man Right

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

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

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