Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
THOMAS PAINEThe Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater miracle than the creation itself, and his own existence?
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.
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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.
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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.
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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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Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
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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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A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
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Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
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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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Virtue is not hereditary.
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It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.
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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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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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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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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.
THOMAS PAINE