A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution is a power without right.
THOMAS PAINETo take away voting is to reduce a man to slavery.
More Thomas Paine Quotes
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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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For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
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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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Government is best which governs least.
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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.
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The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
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The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
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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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The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
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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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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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Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
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I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
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The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.
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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
THOMAS PAINE