I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
THOMAS PAINEI prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
THOMAS PAINEAll churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.
THOMAS PAINEThe right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.
THOMAS PAINEWhen 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 PAINEHe 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.
THOMAS PAINEThese are the times that try men’s souls.
THOMAS PAINEGovernment is best which governs least.
THOMAS PAINEThe greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.
THOMAS PAINEIt is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.
THOMAS PAINEWe 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 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?
THOMAS PAINEEvery proprietor owes to the community a ground-rent for the land which he holds.
THOMAS PAINEFrom 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 PAINEA 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 PAINESome people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.
THOMAS PAINEI consider the war of America against Britain as the country’s war, the public’s war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
THOMAS PAINE