We repose an unwise confidence in any government, or in any men, when we invest them officially with too much, or an… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
A Constitution is not the act of a Government, but of a people constituting a government, and a government without a constitution… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“A hereditary monarch is as absurd a position as a hereditary doctor or mathematician.” — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments which corrupt mankind. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized… — 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
I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
War is the gambling table of governments, and citizens the dupes of the game. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature. The… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The essential psychological requirement of a free society is the willingness on the part of the individual to accept responsibility for his… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It can only be by blinding the understanding of man, and making him believe that government is some wonderful mysterious thing, that… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion? — 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
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
“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 Image
“The laws of every country must be analogous to some common principle.” — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
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 Image
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
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 Image
Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
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 Image
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
