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“I was long ago undeceived that protesting
could bring redress. But whoever suffers
is bound to complain if the pain is great.
So I did! But the cry that could offer
relief is itself feeble and exhausted,
and it is not through weeping that pain abates.”

“You talk of Paine with more respect than he deserves: He is utterly incapable of comprehending his subject. He has not even a moderate portion of learning of any kind. He has learnd the instrumental part of literature, a style, and a method of disposing his ideas, without having ever made a previous preparation of Study or thinking—for the use of it. ... [Paine] possesses nothing more than what a man whose audacity makes him careless of logical consequences, and his total want of honour and morality makes indifferent as to political consequences, may very easily write. They indeed who seriously write upon a principle of levelling ought to be answerd by the Magistrate—and not by the Speculatist.”

“The world would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger than rivalry. But in fact, a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals. Hence the present level of taxation.
Vanity is a motive of immense potency. Anyone who has much to do with children knows how they are constantly performing some antic, and saying "Look at me." "Look at me" is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. It can take innumerable forms, from buffoonery to the pursuit of posthumous fame.”

“The mind of the nation was acted upon by a higher stimulus than what the consideration of persons could inspire, and sought a higher conquest than could be produced by the downfall of an enemy.”

“The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belong to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.”

“There probably is no more important quest in all science than the attempt to understand those very particular events in evolution by which brains worked out that special trick that has enabled them to add to the cosmic scheme of things: color, sound, pain, pleasure, and all the other facets of mental experience.”

“It is an extraordinary act of courage,' said Tulas Shorn, 'to come to know a stranger's pain.”

“I wake up thinking of yesterday. The joy is in remembering; the pain is in knowing it was yesterday.”

“A falcon who chases a warlike crane can only hope for a life of pain.”

“the pain we suffer is a way to make us appreciate what comes next.”

“Why do we have such a finite capacity for pleasure but an infinite one for pain?”

“Pain reaches the heart with electrical speed, but truth moves to the heart as slowly as a glacier.”

“There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful.”

“Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.”

“If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for?”

“He read it for the same reason an animal tears at a wounded foot: to hurt the pain.”

“every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain”

“I thought I'd lie on the floor and writhe in pain for awhile. It relaxes me.”

“The great object of life is sensation- to feel that we exist, even though in pain.”