Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The continual whine of lamenting the burden of taxes, however successfully it may be practiced in mixed governments, is inconsistent with the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments... — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
...the individuals themselves, each in his own personal and sovereign right, entered into a compact with each other to produce a government:… — 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
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 it can be said by any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is… — 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
“The answer of Solon on the question, 'Which is the most perfect popular govemment,' has never been exceeded by any man since… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“I have shown in all the foregoing parts of this work that the Bible and Testament are impositions and forgeries; and I… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
In the first part of 'Rights of Man' I have endeavoured to show...that there does not exist a right to establish hereditary… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness. Society promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, government negatively… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin. — 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
Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry. — 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
