History Quotes by Thomas Paine

Religion is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize humankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it…

— Thomas Paine

“The connection between vice and meanness is a fit subject for satire, but when the satire is a fact, it cuts with…

— Thomas Paine

The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.

— Thomas Paine

His [Jesus'] historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the…

— Thomas Paine

In reviewing the history of the English Government, its wars and its taxes, a bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by…

— Thomas Paine

How strangely is antiquity treated! To answer some purposes it is spoken of as the times of darkness and ignorance, and to…

— Thomas Paine

...It would be more consistent that we call [the Bible] the work of a demon than the word of God. It is…

— Thomas Paine

“That in which every man is interested, is every man's duty to support. And any burden which falls equally on all men,…

— Thomas Paine

“As politicians we ought not so much to ground our hopes on the reasonableness of the thing we ask, as on the…

— Thomas Paine

“That there are men in all countries to whom a state of war is a mine of wealth, is a fact never…

— 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

“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half…

— Thomas Paine

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

— Thomas Paine

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

— Thomas Paine

“Her ideas of national honor seem devoid of that benevolence of heart, that universal expansion of philanthropy, and that triumph over the…

— Thomas Paine

“We know the cause which we are engaged in, and though a passionate fondness for it may make us grieve at every…

— Thomas Paine

“Error in opinion has this peculiar advantage with it, that the foremost point of the contrary ground may at any time be…

— Thomas Paine

“Were a man to be totally deprived of memory, he would be incapable of forming any just opinion; everything about him would…

— Thomas Paine

“There are situations that a nation may be in, in which peace or war, abstracted from every other consideration, may be politically…

— Thomas Paine

“Were government a mere manufacture or article of commerce, immaterial by whom it should be made or sold, we might as well…

— 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 ancient historians, from Herodotus to Tacitus , we credit them as far as they relate things probable and credible,…

— Thomas Paine

“Every history of the creation, and every traditionary account, whether from the lettered or unlettered world, however they may vary in their…

— Thomas Paine

“We have a perfect idea of a natural enemy when we think of the devil, because the enmity is perpetual, unalterable and…

— Thomas Paine

“There are certain circumstances, which, at the time of their happening, are a kind of riddles, and as every riddle is to…

— Thomas Paine

“Separated from the rest of Europe, she has contracted an unsocial habit of manners, and imagines in others the jealousy she creates…

— Thomas Paine

There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the…

— Thomas Paine

When I see throughout this book, called the Bible, a history of the grossest vices and a collection of the most paltry…

— Thomas Paine

“Whoever will take the trouble of reading the book ascribed to Isaiah, will find it one of the most wild and disorderly…

— Thomas Paine