Character Quotes by Thomas Paine

“Virtue is not hereditary.”

— Thomas Paine

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

— Thomas Paine

It is unpleasant to see character throw itself away.

— Thomas Paine

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

— Thomas Paine

Reputation is what men & women think about us; Character is what god and angels know of us.

— Thomas Paine

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

— Thomas Paine

We hold the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty is far superior to that of supplying the…

— Thomas Paine

The moral duty of man consists of imitatingthe moral goodness and beneficence of God,manifested in the creation, toward all His creatures.

— Thomas Paine

“for that which is a disgrace to human nature, throws something of a shade over all the human character, and each individual…

— Thomas Paine

The greatest characters the world has known, have rose on the democratic floor. Aristocracy has not been able to keep a proportionate…

— Thomas Paine

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation…

— Thomas Paine

The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.

— Thomas Paine

Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own…

— Thomas Paine

“A good opinion of ourselves is exceedingly necessary in private life, but absolutely necessary in public life, and of the utmost importance…

— Thomas Paine

When I contemplate the natural dignity of man; when I feel (for Nature has not been kind enough to me to blunt…

— Thomas Paine

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

— Thomas Paine

In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to…

— Thomas Paine

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When…

— Thomas Paine

The prejudice of unfounded belief often degenerates into the prejudice of custom, and becomes at last rank hypocrisy. When men, from custom…

— Thomas Paine

As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by…

— Thomas Paine

Universal empire is the prerogative of a writer. His concerns are with all mankind, and though he cannot command their obedience,he can…

— Thomas Paine

“Character is much easier kept than recovered, and that man, if any such there be, who, from sinister views, or littleness of…

— Thomas Paine

“This necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessing of which, would supersede,…

— Thomas Paine

Had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscribed on the face of the sun and the moon, in characters that…

— Thomas Paine

“The character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the most horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true,…

— Thomas Paine

“We feel something like respect for consistency even in error. We lament the virtue that is debauched into a vice, but the…

— Thomas Paine

“I remember the late Admiral Saunders declaring in the House of Commons, and that in the time of peace, 'That the city…

— Thomas Paine

“As to the fragments of morality that are irregularly and thinly scattered in those books [the Bible], they make no part of…

— Thomas Paine

“A substantial good drawn from a real evil, is of the same benefit to society as if drawn from a virtue; and…

— Thomas Paine

“May she [United States] never forget that a fair national reputation is of as much importance as independence. That it possesses a…

— Thomas Paine

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

We feel something like respect for consistency even in error. We lament the virtue that is debauched into a vice; but the…

— Thomas Paine

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title. The thing is perfectly harmless in itself, but it marks a sort…

— Thomas Paine

Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the…

— Thomas Paine

The moral duty of man consists of imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God, manifested in the creation towards all his…

— Thomas Paine