“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“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 (1737-1809)
“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 (1737-1809)
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“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 (1737-1809)
“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“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.
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 (1737-1809)
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“Time makes more converts than reason.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“...taxes are not raised to carry on wars, but that wars are raised to carry on taxes”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
“That government is best which governs least.”
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"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 (1737-1809)
"There are two distinct classes of men - those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"The slavery of fear had made men afraid to think."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected; if not, they will be despised."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
"Christianity is the strangest religion ever set up, for it committed a murder upon Jesus in order to redeem mankind from the sin of eating an apple."
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)