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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.

Thomas Paine

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.
THOMAS PAINE

Appearance Habit Reason Time Wrong
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

Discover Equality Existence Gift Impossible Man Right
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.
THOMAS PAINE

Destruction Disguise Greatness Name Noble
Virtue is not hereditary.
THOMAS PAINE

Inheritance One Liner Virtue
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
THOMAS PAINE

Ignorance Obedience Reason
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of humans; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.
THOMAS PAINE

Believe Beyond Equality God Happiness Hope Justice Life Mercy Ourselves
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.
THOMAS PAINE

Expectation Justice Madness Mercy Murder Trick Violence War Wolf
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
THOMAS PAINE

Appearance Habit Right Thinking Wrong
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
THOMAS PAINE

Government Ignorance Kind Man Trade
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
THOMAS PAINE

Dare Himself Honesty Offend
It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.
THOMAS PAINE

Ability Error Illusion Man Responsibility
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
THOMAS PAINE

Accountable Body Hold Man Trust
Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
THOMAS PAINE

Crime Ignorance Knowledge Responsibility
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.
THOMAS PAINE

Body Government Man Right Togetherness Trust
Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it.
THOMAS PAINE

Blessing Expectation Freedom Support
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

Extraordinary Generation Government Kind Pay Power

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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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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Popular Authors

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