There are two distinct classes of men – those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes.
THOMAS PAINEIt is always to be taken for granted, that those who oppose an equality of rights never mean the exclusion should take place on themselves.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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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.
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When it becomes necessary to do a thing, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.
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It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.
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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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Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
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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.
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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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I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
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It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.
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He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
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The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
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When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.
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Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.
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The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
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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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Men should not petition for rights, but take them.
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Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.
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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
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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.
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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.
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Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
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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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Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
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The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
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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