Thomas Paine quotes - page 7

The example of the Jews, in many things, may not be imitated by us; they had not only orders to cut off several nations altogether, but if they were obliged to war with others, and conquered them, to cut off every male; they were suffered to use polygamy and divorces, and other things utterly unlawful to us under clearer light. (Thomas Paine)
[W]hy do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise in others? View quote
Thomas Paine
Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher. View quote
Thomas Paine
Submission is wholly a vassalage term, repugnant to the dignity of freedom, and an echo of the language used at the Conquest. View quote
Thomas Paine
The mind of the nation was acted upon by a higher stimulus than what the consideration of persons could inspire, and sought a higher conquest than could be produced by the downfall of an enemy. View quote
Thomas Paine
Whether, then, all ought not immediately to discontinue and renounce it, with grief and abhorrence? Should not every society bear testimony against it, and account obstinate persisters in it bad men, enemies to their country, and exclude them from fellowship; as they often do for much lesser faults? View quote
Thomas Paine
It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradation we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world. View quote
Thomas Paine
Had I served my God as faithful as I have served my king, he would not thus have forsaken me in my old age. View quote
Thomas Paine
It is the nature of conquest to turn everything upside down. View quote
Thomas Paine
Eloquence may strike the ear, but the language of poverty strikes the heart; the first may charm like music, but the second alarms like a knell. View quote
Thomas Paine
While the characters of men are forming, as is always the case in revolutions, there is a reciprocal suspicion, and a disposition to misinterpret each other; and even parties directly opposite in principle will sometimes concur in pushing forward the same movement with very different views, and with the hopes of its producing very different consequences. A great deal of this may be discovered in this embarrassed affair, and yet the issue of the whole was what nobody had in view. (Thomas Paine)
I have no wish to believe on that subject. View quote
Thomas Paine
Religion has two principal enemies, fanaticism and infidelity, or that which is called atheism. The first requires to be combated by reason and morality, the other by natural philosophy. View quote
Thomas Paine
Despotic government supports itself by abject civilization, in which debasement of the human mind, and wretchedness in the mass of the people, are the chief criterions. Such governments consider man merely as an animal; that the exercise of intellectual faculty is not his privilege; that he has nothing to do with the laws but to obey them; and they politically depend more upon breaking the spirit of the people by poverty, than they fear enraging it by desperation. View quote
Thomas Paine
The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it. View quote
Thomas Paine
All religions are in their nature kind and benign, and united with principles of morality. They could not have made proselytes at first by professing anything that was vicious, cruel, persecuting, or immoral. Like everything else, they had their beginning; and they proceeded by persuasion, exhortation, and example. How then is it that they lose their native mildness, and become morose and intolerant? View quote
Thomas Paine
It is only by the exercise of reason that man can discover God. View quote
Thomas Paine
But the chief design of this paper is not to disprove it, which many have sufficiently done; but to entreat Americans to consider. View quote
Thomas Paine
I bid you farewell, sincerely wishing, that as men and christians, ye may always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and religious right. View quote
Thomas Paine
It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the enlarging orb of reason, and the luminous revolutions of America and France. View quote
Thomas Paine
The difference between a republican and a courtier with respect to monarchy, is that the one opposes monarchy, believing it to be something; and the other laughs at it, knowing it to be nothing. (Thomas Paine)
Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came. View quote
Thomas Paine
I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense. View quote
Thomas Paine
These are the sentiments of JUSTICE AND HUMANITY. View quote
Thomas Paine
They stand not aloof with the gaping vacuity of vulgar ignorance, nor bend with the cringe of sycophantic insignificance. The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man. View quote
Thomas Paine