“Reputation is what men and women think of us character is what God and angels know of us.”
– Thomas Paine
“War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.”
– Thomas Paine
“He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.”
– Thomas Paine
“War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.”
– Thomas Paine
“To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.”
– Thomas Paine
“But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.”
– Thomas Paine
“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”
– Thomas Paine
“Time makes more converts than reason.”
– Thomas Paine
“I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.”
– Thomas Paine
“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”
– Thomas Paine
“The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.”
– Thomas Paine
“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.”
– Thomas Paine
“Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.”
– Thomas Paine
“The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.”
– Thomas Paine
“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one.”
– Thomas Paine
“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.”
– Thomas Paine
“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”
– Thomas Paine
“Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles he can only discover them.”
– Thomas Paine
“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.”
– Thomas Paine
“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”
– Thomas Paine
“Every religion is good that teaches man to be good and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.”
– Thomas Paine
“My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
– Thomas Paine
“Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.”
– Thomas Paine
“Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.”
– Thomas Paine
“The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”
– Thomas Paine
“The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.”
– Thomas Paine
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
– Thomas Paine
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
– Thomas Paine
“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.”
– Thomas Paine
“I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.”
– Thomas Paine