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 PAINEA 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.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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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 -
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.
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The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.
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Character is much easier kept than recovered.
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The right of voting for representatives , is the primary right by which other rights are protected.
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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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If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.
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If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
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Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
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Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
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Government is not a trade which any man or body of men has a right to set up and exercise for his own emolument, but is altogether a trust, in right of those by whom that trust is delegated, and by whom it is always resumable. It has of itself no rights; they are altogether duties.
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Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
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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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Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
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One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
THOMAS PAINE