Government is best which governs least.
THOMAS PAINEIf I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
THOMAS PAINE -
No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.
THOMAS PAINE -
Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
THOMAS PAINE -
Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
THOMAS PAINE -
It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.
THOMAS PAINE -
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of humans; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.
THOMAS PAINE -
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
THOMAS PAINE -
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
THOMAS PAINE -
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
THOMAS PAINE -
You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.
THOMAS PAINE -
Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.
THOMAS PAINE -
The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.
THOMAS PAINE -
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
THOMAS PAINE -
Men should not petition for rights, but take them.
THOMAS PAINE -
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
THOMAS PAINE -
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
THOMAS PAINE -
When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.
THOMAS PAINE -
It has been the political career of this man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with arrogance, and finish with contempt.
THOMAS PAINE -
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.
THOMAS PAINE -
Virtue is not hereditary.
THOMAS PAINE -
It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.
THOMAS PAINE -
I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
THOMAS PAINE -
These are the times that try men’s souls.
THOMAS PAINE -
Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
THOMAS PAINE -
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.
THOMAS PAINE -
When it becomes necessary to do a thing, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.
THOMAS PAINE