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Thomas Paine Quotes

Total quotes: 21
“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”
— Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man
Tagged: army, Principle, Soldier, Power
“...taxes are not raised to carry on wars, but that wars are raised to carry on taxes.”
— Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Tagged: Tax, War, Profit
“All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.”
— Thomas Paine, The Writing of Thomas Paine
Tagged: Tales, Miracles, Religion, Christianity, skepticism, Belief
“From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.”
— Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Tagged: Error, Mistakes, nation, Wisdom, Learning from mistakes
“Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time. It is therefore at least millions to one that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.”
— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Nature, Lie, Miracle, Reason
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by 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 is a patron, the last a punisher.”
— Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Tagged: Society, Government, Wickedness, Wants, desires
“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, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Persecution, Religion, Law
“It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”
— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Happiness, Faithfulness, Infidelity, Belief
“My own mind is my own church.”
— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Mind, Church, Religion, Belief, Dogma
“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
— Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
Tagged: tyranny, Conquering, Conflict, Battle, Triumph
“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.”
— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Right, Respect, Opinion, Slave
“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Religion, skepticism, Knowledge, Education, Belief
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
— Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Tagged: Thinking, Time, Reason
“It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.”
— Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Tagged: Bible, Belief, God, Cruelty, Murder
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”
— Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
Tagged: Conviction, Value, Freedom
“Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.”
— Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Tagged: Right, Duty, possessive
“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, The American Crisis
Tagged: argument, Reason, Close-mindedness, Philosophy
“Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
— Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Tagged: Independence, Happiness, Doing Good, kindness
“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”
— Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America
Tagged: Mind, Enlightenment, Darkness, Awakened
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”
— Thomas Paine, The Forester’s Letters
Tagged: Offensive, honest
“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, Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion
Tagged: Principles, Adversity, Reflection, Ethics
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