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.
THOMAS PAINEWhat we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.
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The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.
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.
THOMAS PAINE -
Every person of learning is finally his own teacher.
THOMAS PAINE -
These are the times that try men’s souls.
THOMAS PAINE -
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
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An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
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Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.
THOMAS PAINE -
You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.
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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.
THOMAS PAINE -
Virtue is not hereditary.
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Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.
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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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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