Thomas Paine
It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.
My mind is my own church.
To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.
There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.
We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.
It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.Collection: Funny
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.Collection: Trust
He who dares not offend cannot be honest.Collection: Truth
The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.Collection: Names
It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Country
You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.Collection: Fear
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.Collection: Exercise
When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.Collection: Taken
These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.Collection: Love
Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.Collection: Self Esteem
Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.Collection: Men
The slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Honesty
There are two distinct classes of men - those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes.Collection: Men
Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it.Collection: People
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.Collection: Strength
To take away (voting) is to reduce a man to slavery.Collection: Men
[A]ll churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Muslim, are simply human inventions. They use fear to enslave us. They are a monopoly for power and profit.Collection: Christian
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.Collection: Believe
It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.Collection: Lying
The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntaxCollection: America
There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, that is not to be found inany other system of religion. All other systems have something in them that either shock our reason, or are repugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, must stifle his reason in order to force himself to believe them.Collection: Believe
As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by any personal altercation; and the man who cannot do this, is not fit for a public character.Collection: Determination
It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all.Collection: Blessing
Now, which am I to believe, a book that any impostor might make and call the Word of God, or the creation itself which none but an Almighty Power could make? For the Bible says one thing; and the creation says the contrary. The Bible represents God with all the passions of a mortal, and the creation proclaims him with all the attributes of a God.Collection: Believe
...the true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity.Collection: Greatness
From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?Collection: War
Aristocracy has a tendency to degenerate the human species.Collection: Aristocracy
And when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must unite with our interests to prevent injury to the one, or insult to the other.Collection: Beautiful
Man did not make the earth, and though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity, any part of it.Collection: Men
The continual whine of lamenting the burden of taxes, however successfully it may be practiced in mixed governments, is inconsistent with the sense and spirit of a republic. If taxes are necessary, they are of course advantageous, but if they require an apology, the apology itself implies an impeachment. Why, then, is man imposed upon, or why does he impose upon himself?Collection: Apology
The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly.Collection: Kings
Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.Collection: Men