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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1770s, Common Sense (1776)
Context: The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR.

“Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“Man did not enter society to be worse off, or to have fewer rights, but rather to have those rights better secured”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“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.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1790s, Agrarian Justice (1797)
Source: Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings
Context: An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot; it will succeed where diplomatic management would fall: it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean that can arrest its progress: it will march on the horizon of the world, and it will conquer.

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

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1770s, Common Sense (1776)

“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.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

Source: 1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

“Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.”

Thomas Paine book The Age of Reason

Source: The Age of Reason

“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…”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“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 (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Source: The Writing of Thomas Paine

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

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

1790s, First Principles of Government (1795)
Context: An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

“It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

The complete political works. Rights of man: being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French Revolution, p. 306
1790s

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

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“The christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

An Essay on the Origin of Free-Masonry (1803-1805); found in manuscript form after Paine's death and thought to have been written for an intended part III of The Age of Reason. It was partially published in 1810 and published in its entirety in 1818.
1800s

“If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“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 book The Age of Reason

Source: The Age of Reason

“But 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 book The Age of Reason

Source: 1790s, The Age of Reason, Part I (1794)

“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

“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 book The American Crisis

The Crisis No. I (written 19 December 1776, published 23 December 1776).
Source: 1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Context: THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. 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.