285 Inspiring Quotes by Thomas Paine

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.

I fear not, I see not reason for fear. In the end we will be the victors. For though at times the flame of liberty may cease to shine, the ember will never expire.

I would not dare so dishonor my Creator's name by attaching it to this filthy book.

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.

The intimacy which is contracted in infancy, and friendship which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the most lasting and unalterable.

When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir.

Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.

That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true.

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.

It is a fraud of the Christian system to call the sciences human invention; it is only the application of them that is human.

Men should not petition for rights, but take them.

'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.

The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.

And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.

Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.

It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

Man must go back to nature for information.

Let it then be heard, and let man learn to feel that the true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity, and not on conquest.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.

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

Arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order.

To reason with goverments, as they have existed for ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that reforms can be expected.

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

Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

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

The balance of power is the scale of peace.

No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.

Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.

Kill the king but spare the man.

Her türlü yanlışa karşı en amansız silah Akıl'dır.

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.

A Democracy is the most vile form of government there is!

It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes.

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.

We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.

Mystery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that obscures truth, and represents it in distortion.

Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.

On this question of war, three things are to be considered. First, the right of declaring it: secondly, the expense of supporting it: thirdly, the mode of conducting it after it is declared.

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.

The times that tried men's souls are over-and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.

Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.

Titles are like a magicians wand which circumscribe human facility and prevent us from living the lives of man.

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.

It is a faculty of the human mind to become what it contemplates, and to act in unison with its object.

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

And this manner of speaking of the Almighty, as one would speak of a man, is consistent with nothing but the stupidity of the Bible.

Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.

Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!

I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered; and the easier repaired when disordered.

The error of those who reason by precedents drawn from antiquity, respecting the rights of man, is that they do not go far enough into antiquity.

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.

Let the world see that this nation can bear prosperity; and that her honest virtue in time of peace is equal to her bravest valor in time of war.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

Our present condition is, Legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; a constitution without a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect independence contending for dependence.

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.

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

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

To be nobly wrong is more manly than to be meanly right.

But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

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

My country is wherever liberty lives.

Virtue is not hereditary.

Priests and conjurors are of the same trade.

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.

The animals to whom nature has given the faculty we call cunning know always when to use it, and use it wisely; but when man descends to cunning he blunders and betrays.

We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest truest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.

When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop, in the place of reason, argument and good order.

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

The true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity.

In Deism our reason and our belief are happily united.

Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches; and tho' avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

My mind is my own church.

The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.

Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

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.

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

Wisdom degenerates in governments as governments increase in age.

The right of voting for representatives , is the primary right by which other rights are protected.

I die content, I die for the liberty of my country.

The duty of a true Patriot is to protect his country from its government.

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.

It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.

If the present generation, or any other, are disposed to be slaves, it does not lessen the right of the succeeding generation to be free: wrongs cannot have a legal descent.

Calumny is a vice of curious constitution; trying to kill it keeps it alive; leave it to itself and it will die a natural death.

He, who survives his reputation, lives out of despite himself, like a man listening to his own reproach.

Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things.

It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all.

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

Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.

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.

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.

The Almighty implanted in us these inextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of His image in our heart. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals.

Human language is local and changeable, and is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information.

We have it in our power to change the world over.

Compassion, the fairest associate of the heart.

I believe in the same manner at this moment; and I moreover believe, that any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system.

There is a natural firmness in some minds, which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude.

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.

Titles do not count with posterity.

He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.

As to the book called the bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions and a history of bad times and bad men.

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.

There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state. The construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity.

There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.

When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.

These are the times that try men's souls.

Evils, like poisons, have their uses, and there are diseases which no other remedy can reach.

It is the object only of war that makes it honorable.

Death is not the monarch for the dead, but of the dying. The moment he obtains a conquest he loses a subject.

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.

That which is right will become popular, and that which is wrong, though by mistake it may obtain the cry or fashion of the day, will soon lose the power of delusion, and sink into disesteem.

Human nature is not of itself vicious.

Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it.

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

Not in numbers but in unity that our great strength lies.

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.

It is only by the exercise of reason that man can discover God.

For the fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle -- not more just.

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.

The obscene and vulgar stories in the Bible are as repugnant to our ideas of the purity of a Divine Being, as the horrid cruelties and murders it ascribes to Him are repugnant to our ideas of His justice.

One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

The danger to which the success of revolutions is most exposed, is that of attempting them before the principles on which they proceed, and the advantages to result from them, are sufficiently seen and understood.

There exists in man a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which, unless something excites it to action, will descend with him, in that condition,to the grave.

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

Government is best which governs least.

All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.

I die in perfect composure and resignation to the will of my Creator, God.

The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.

The artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf before the noble of nature; and in the few instances (for there are some in all countries) in whom nature, as by a miracle, has survived in aristocracy, those men despise it.

The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.

How strangely is antiquity treated! To answer some purposes it is spoken of as the times of darkness and ignorance, and to answer others, it is put for the light of the world.

I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.

I disbelieve all holy men and holy books.

Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.

We hold the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance.

I love the man that smiles at trouble: that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection.

He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.

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.

They may be all comprehended under three heads -- 1st, Superstition; 2d, Power; 3d, the common interests of society, and the common rights of man.

That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.

Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.

The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.

From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?

For what is the amount of all his prayers, but an attempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say -- thou knowest not so well as I.

Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.

THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD: And it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness.

Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security.

The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.

From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.

The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is large enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvelous; but it would have approached nearer to the idea of a miracle if Jonah had swallowed the whale.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.

We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.

Suspicion and persecution are weeds of the same dunghill, and flourish best together.

Public credit is suspicion asleep.

What is called a republic, is not any particular form of government ... it is naturally opposed to the word monarchy, which means arbitrary power.

It was needless, after this, to say that all was vanity and vexation of spirit; for it is impossible to derive happiness from the company of those whom we deprive of happiness.

Wrong cannot have a legal descendant.