Thomas Paine citations

Thomas Paine, né le 29 janvier 1737 à Thetford en Grande-Bretagne et mort le 8 juin 1809 à New York aux États-Unis, est un intellectuel, pamphlétaire, révolutionnaire britannique, américain et français. Il est connu pour son engagement durant la révolution américaine en faveur de l'indépendance des treize colonies britanniques en Amérique du Nord. Il a exposé ses positions dans un célèbre pamphlet intitulé Le Sens commun, publié quelques mois avant la signature de la Déclaration d’indépendance américaine en 1776.

Ses écrits, parmi lesquels figure Rights of Man , ont également exercé une grande influence sur les acteurs de la Révolution française : il est élu député à l’assemblée nationale en 1792. Considéré par les Montagnards comme un allié des Girondins, il est progressivement mis à l’écart, notamment par Robespierre, puis emprisonné en décembre 1793.

Après la Terreur, il est relâché et connaît un certain succès grâce à son livre Le Siècle de la raison qui analyse le christianisme et milite en faveur du déisme. Dans Agrarian Justice , il analyse les origines du droit de propriété et introduit le concept de revenu de base ou universel, proche du revenu minimum.

Thomas Paine resta en France jusqu’en 1802, période pendant laquelle il critique l’ascension de Napoléon Bonaparte, qualifiant le Premier consul de « charlatan le plus parfait qui eût jamais existé ». Sur l’invitation du président Thomas Jefferson, il revient aux États-Unis où il meurt en 1809 à 72 ans. Wikipedia  

✵ 9. février 1737 – 8. juin 1809   •   Autres noms Пейн Томас
Thomas Paine photo
Thomas Paine: 264   citations 1   J'aime

Thomas Paine Citations

Thomas Paine: Citations en anglais

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

Source: A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America

“Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness”

1770s, Common Sense (1776)
Contexte: 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. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.

“A body of men, holding themselves accountable to nobody, ought not to be trusted by any body.”

Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“Time makes more converts than reason.”

Thomas Paine livre Common Sense

Source: Common Sense

“Give me liberty, or give me death.”

Thomas Paine livre Common Sense

Source: Common Sense

“My own mind is my own church.”

Thomas Paine livre The Age of Reason

Source: The Age of Reason

“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”

The Forester's Letters http://www.bartleby.com/184/117.html, Letter III—'To Cato', Pennsylvania Journal (24 April 1776)
1770s

“Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.7 Conclusion
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
Contexte: Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

“It is by distortedly exalting some men, that others are distortedly debased, till the whole is out of nature.”

Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

“When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.”

Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)

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

Commonly attributed to Paine, even on memorials https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Paine_Plaque_NY.jpg|, and justly describes his ideals, but found nowhere in his writings. It is actually is derived from a quote in Rights of Man: Part 2, "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."
Misattributed

“These are the times that try men's souls.”

Thomas Paine livre The American Crisis

Source: The American Crisis

“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 livre Rights of Man

Part 2.7 Chapter V. Ways and means of improving the condition of Europe, interspersed with miscellaneous observations
Source: 1790s, Rights of Man, Part 2 (1792)
Contexte: I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because I thought them improper, but have declined rewards I might with reputation have accepted, it is no wonder that meanness and imposition appear disgustful. 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.

“But the dejection lasts only for a moment; they soon rise out of it with additional vigor; the glow of hope, courage and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the place of every inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into heroism.”

The Crisis No. IV.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Contexte: Men who are sincere in defending their freedom, will always feel concern at every circumstance which seems to make against them; it is the natural and honest consequence of all affectionate attachments, and the want of it is a vice. But the dejection lasts only for a moment; they soon rise out of it with additional vigor; the glow of hope, courage and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the place of every inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into heroism.

“There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the "end of time," or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed”

Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
Contexte: There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the "end of time," or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it; and therefore all such clauses, acts or declarations by which the makers of them attempt to do what they have neither the right nor the power to do, nor the power to execute, are in themselves null and void. Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the age and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies. Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow.

“Toleration is not the opposite of Intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms.”

Thomas Paine livre Rights of Man

Part 1.3 Rights of Man
1790s, Rights of Man, Part I (1791)
Contexte: Toleration is not the opposite of Intolerance, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding Liberty of Conscience, and the other of granting it. The one is the Pope armed with fire and faggot, and the other is the Pope selling or granting indulgences. The former is church and state, and the latter is church and traffic.

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