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War Quotes by Thomas Paine

57 War quotes by Thomas Paine

All War quotes Thomas Paine’s page

Thomas Paine argues that principles can be stronger than armies, and that war is often a murder driven by profit. He questions the honor of war, the cost it forces on nations, and the value of triumph earned through hardship. He warns against those who live by keeping quarrels alive.

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Prejudice will fall in a combat with interest.

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War ought to be no man's wish.

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It is the object only of war that makes it honorable.

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The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

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...taxes are not raised to carry on wars, but that wars are raised to carry on taxes

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An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

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War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game.

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Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.

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The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.

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If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.

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From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?

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Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.

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War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but…

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“In despotic governments wars are the effect of pride; but in those governments in which they become the means of taxation, they…

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To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the…

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Thus commerce, though in itself a moral nullity, has had a considerable influence in tempering the human mind…he trades with the same…

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“On this question of war, three things are to be considered. First, the rights of declaring it: secondly, the expense of supporting…

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I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in…

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It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat…

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The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength…

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“In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is…

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Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the…

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“The laying of a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the…

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“for in proportion as the enemy despair of conquest, they will be trying the arts of seduction and the force of fear…

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Could the peaceable principle of the Quakers be universally established, arms and the art of war would be wholly extirpated: But we…

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In a general view, there are few conquests that repay the charge of making them, and mankind are pretty well convinced that…

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“There is something in a war carried on by invasion which makes it differ in circumstances from any other mode of war,…

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“That advice should be taken wherever example has failed, or precept be regarded where warning is ridiculed, is like a picture of…

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America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by…

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“Whatever is the cause of taxes to a Nation, becomes also the means of revenue to Government. Every war terminates with an…

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“To pass from the extremes of danger to safety-from the tumult of war to the tranquility of peace, though sweet in contemplation,…

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“What inducement has the farmer, while following the plough, to lay aside his peaceful pursuit, and go to war with the farmer…

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“When the tumult of war shall cease, and the tempest of present passions be succeeded by calm reflection, or when those, who,…

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Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this… Her cause was good. Her principles just and liberal.…

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“The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are…

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“The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin…

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“He that is the author of war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation…

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“The right of war and peace is in the nation. where else should it reside but in those who are to pay…

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He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a…

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I know not whether taxes are raised to fight wars, or wars are fought in order to raise taxes.

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More by Thomas Paine

“No man is prejudiced in favour of a thing, knowing it to be wrong. He is attached to it on the belief of its…

“The laws of every country must be analogous to some common principle.”

The book called the Bible has been voted by men, and decreed by human laws to be the word of God; and the disbelief…

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

One would think that a system loaded with such gross and vulgar absurdities as Scripture religion is could never have obtained credit; yet we…

Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.

What is it the Bible teaches us? - raping, cruelty, and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us? - to believe that…

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

“It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bible, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible on…

But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and it is at such times, when they begin to think, that they begin to…

Wisdom is not the purchase of a day

Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter…

Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.

“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…

What more does man want to know than that the hand or power that made these things is divine, is omnipotent? Let him believe…