Government is best which governs least.
THOMAS PAINEArms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property… Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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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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Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
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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These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
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An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
THOMAS PAINE -
A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is a power without right.
THOMAS PAINE -
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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When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.
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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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Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
THOMAS PAINE -
Men should not petition for rights, but take them.
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Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
THOMAS PAINE -
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
THOMAS PAINE -
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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Character is much easier kept than recovered.
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.
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Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
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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.
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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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Virtue is not hereditary.
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Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it.
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The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
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It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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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