Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
THOMAS PAINEGovernment 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.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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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.
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Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
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To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
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I 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 -
What is it the Bible teaches us? – raping, cruelty, and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us? – to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith.
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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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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.
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You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.
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These are the times that try men’s souls.
THOMAS PAINE -
Practical religion consists in doing good: and the only way of serving God is that of endeavoring to make His creation happy. All preaching that has not this for its object is nonsense and hypocrisy.
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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.
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It is always to be taken for granted, that those who oppose an equality of rights never mean the exclusion should take place on themselves.
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Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
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Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.
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For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
THOMAS PAINE