It is painful to behold a man employing his talents to corrupt himself. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It has been the political career of this man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with arrogance, and finish with contempt — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
There are two distinct classes of men - those who pay taxes and those who receive and live upon taxes. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected; if not, they will be despised. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
What is called a republic, is not any particular form of government ... it is naturally opposed to the word monarchy, which… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can be found. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
When extraordinary power and extraordinary pay are allotted to any individual in a government, he becomes the center, round which every kind… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Government is not a trade which any man or body of men has a right to set up and exercise for his… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Those words, temperate and moderate, are words either of political cowardice, or of cunning, or seduction. A thing, moderately good is not… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state. The construction of government ought to be such… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
A single legislature, on account of the superabundance of its power, and the uncontrolled rabidity of its execution, becomes as dangerous to… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty,… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
When the rich plunder the poor of his rights, it becomes an example for the poor to plunder the rich of his… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Change of ministers amounts to nothing. One goes out, another comes in, and still the same measures, vices, and extravagances are pursued.… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It is unnatural that a pure stream should flow from a foul fountain its vices are but a continuation of the vices… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
As property, honestly obtained, is best secured by an equality of rights, so ill-gotten property depends for protection on a monopoly of… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Government," says Swift, "is a plain thing, and fitted to the capacity of many heads. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy . . . to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It is from the power of taxation being in the hands of those who can throw so great a part of it… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Government has no right to make itself a party in any debates respecting the principles or mode of forming or of changing,… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
To live with our enemies as if they may some time become our friends, and to live with our friends as if… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It is not because a part of the government is elective, that makes it less a despotism, if the persons so elected,… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“No man is prejudiced in favour of a thing, knowing it to be wrong. He is attached to it on the belief of its… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
The book called the Bible has been voted by men, and decreed by human laws to be the word of God; and the disbelief… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. — Thomas Paine Copy Share
One would think that a system loaded with such gross and vulgar absurdities as Scripture religion is could never have obtained credit; yet we… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
What is it the Bible teaches us? - raping, cruelty, and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us? - to believe that… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. — Thomas Paine Copy Share
“It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bible, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible on… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and it is at such times, when they begin to think, that they begin to… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society. — Thomas Paine Copy Share
“To pass from the extremes of danger to safety-from the tumult of war to the tranquility of peace, though sweet in contemplation, requires a… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
What more does man want to know than that the hand or power that made these things is divine, is omnipotent? Let him believe… — Thomas Paine Copy Share
