Thomas Paine Quotes - Page 3

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• It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once. Time and reason must cooperate with each other to the final establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy.

  Thomas Paine

  Truth, Men, Principles

  Thomas Paine (1795). “Dissertation on First-principles of Government”, p.36

  70 Copy quote

• Government is best which governs least

  Thomas Paine

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

  38 Copy quote

• 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.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Philosophy, Men

  Thomas Paine (2003). “Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of ThomasPaine”, p.107, Penguin

  55 Copy quote

• The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

  Thomas Paine

  Government, Political, Ignorant

  23 Copy quote

• Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters.

  Thomas Paine

  Character, Self, Political

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THE RIGHTS OF MAN: The French Revolution – Ideals, Arguments & Motives (Political Classic): Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.213, e-artnow

  6 Copy quote

• Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Class, Rights

  Thomas Paine, Mark Philp (2008). “Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings”, p.402, Oxford University Press

  91 Copy quote

• ... in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.

  Thomas Paine

  Country, Kings, Law

  Thomas Paine, John P. Kaminski (2002). “Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion”, p.139, Rowman & Littlefield

  7 Copy quote

• Every person of learning is finally his own teacher.

  Thomas Paine

  Teacher, Educational, Persons

  Thomas Paine (2013). “The Thomas Paine Reader”, p.461, Simon and Schuster

  13 Copy quote

• The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

  Thomas Paine

  Inspirational, Positive, Strength

  124 Copy quote

• I had come to realize the importance of the Nation, and of shared, communal, social responsibility, to be held as equally important as individual concerns. The elderly, the widowed, newly married couples, the poor, the unemployed, disbanded soldiers and children, who would be required to attend school, must be provided for from state funds. And all this support is not the nature of charity, but of a right.

  Thomas Paine

  Children, Couple, School

  17 Copy quote

• Common sense will tell us, that
  the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the
  most improper to defend us.

  Thomas Paine

  Common Sense, Liberty, Common

  Thomas Paine (2015). “Common Sense, The Crisis, & Other Writings from the American Revolution: (Library of America Paperback Classic)”, p.63, Library of America

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Education, Ignorance, Government

  Thomas Paine (1856). “Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.141

  62 Copy quote

• When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

  Thomas Paine

  Pain, Freedom, Patriotic

  Thomas Paine (1945). “The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine”

  21 Copy quote

• When it shall be said in any country in the world my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want; the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am a friend of its happiness: When these things can be said, there may that country boast its Constitution and its Government

  Thomas Paine

  Happiness, Country, Ignorance

  Thomas Paine (1995). “Collected Writings”, p.649, Library of America

  63 Copy quote

• Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.

  Thomas Paine

  Truth, Freedom, Men

  Thomas Paine, Bruce Kuklick (2000). “Paine: Political Writings”, p.162, Cambridge University Press

  43 Copy quote
• 

  The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

  Thomas Paine

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Thomas Paine (1817). “The Political Works of Thomas Paine: In Two Volumes”

  143 Copy quote

• Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.

  Thomas Paine

  Government, Constitution

  Thomas Paine (1795). “The Rights of Man: For the Benefit of All Mankind”, p.85

  17 Copy quote

• We still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute.

  Thomas Paine

  Wisdom, Government, Hands

  Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Paine and Jefferson on Liberty”, p.107, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

  69 Copy quote

• One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.

  Thomas Paine

  Atheist, Motivation, Use

  Thomas Paine (1826). “A Letter to Camille Jordan, of the Council of Five Hundred: Occasioned by His Report on the Priests, the Worship, and the Bells”, p.6

  79 Copy quote

• Character is much easier kept than recovered.

  Thomas Paine

  Life, Integrity, War

  Thomas Paine (1819). “The American Crisis”, p.190

  91 Copy quote

• It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.

  Thomas Paine

  Slavery, Republican, Failing

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.19, Yale University Press

  10 Copy quote

• Ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!

  Thomas Paine

  Tyrants, Democracy, Dare

  Thomas Paine (1854). “The Works of Thomas Paine: A Hero in the American Revolution. With an Account of His Life ...”, p.13

  5 Copy quote

• Each of those churches shows certain books, which they call revelation, or the Word of God. The Jews say that their Word of God was given by God to Moses face to face; the Christians say, that their Word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks say, that their Word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses the other of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all.

  Thomas Paine

  Christian, Book, Inspiration

  Thomas Paine (1861). “The Age of Reason, etc”, p.2

  64 Copy quote

• Man must go back to nature for information.

  Thomas Paine

  Nature, Men, Information

  Thomas Paine (2016). “The Rights of Man”, p.113, Xist Publishing

  8 Copy quote

• It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself.

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Political, Politics

  Thomas Paine (1791). “Rights of Man”, p.26

  4 Copy quote

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