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 PAINEThe trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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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 -
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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Men should not petition for rights, but take them.
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One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
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The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.
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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 -
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
THOMAS PAINE -
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.
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A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
THOMAS PAINE -
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.
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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
THOMAS PAINE -
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 -
Christianity is the strangest religion ever set up, for it committed a murder upon Jesus in order to redeem mankind from the sin of eating an apple.
THOMAS PAINE -
When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.
THOMAS PAINE -
What is it the Bible teaches us? – raping, cruelty, and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us? – to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.
THOMAS PAINE -
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 -
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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 -
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 -
Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
THOMAS PAINE -
You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.
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 -
Government is best which governs least.
THOMAS PAINE -
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
THOMAS PAINE -
For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
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I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
THOMAS PAINE