It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.
THOMAS PAINEIt 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.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
-
-
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.
THOMAS PAINE -
Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
THOMAS PAINE -
The 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?
THOMAS PAINE -
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 PAINE -
Men should not petition for rights, but take them.
THOMAS PAINE -
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
THOMAS PAINE -
Arms 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.
THOMAS PAINE -
It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.
THOMAS PAINE -
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
THOMAS PAINE -
Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.
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 -
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
THOMAS PAINE -
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 PAINE -
Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
THOMAS PAINE -
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