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Liberty Quotes by Thomas Paine

42 Liberty quotes by Thomas Paine

All Liberty quotes Thomas Paine’s page

A flickering flame of liberty may dim, but its coal never burns out. Paine’s words warn that harsh punishment and ignorant rule threaten freedom. They also argue that true liberty needs tolerance and even protecting those we disagree with in society.

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Liberty cannot be purchased by a wish.

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I die content, I die for the liberty of my country.

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Government is best which governs least

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My country is wherever liberty lives.

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Though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire

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For freemen like brothers agree; With one spirit endured, they one friendship pursued, And their temple was Liberty Tree

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But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.

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The United States should be an asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty.

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A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

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

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Those who expect to reap the blessings of liberty must undergo the fatigues of supporting it.

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“But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.”

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He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he…

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Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she…

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Each government accuses the other of perfidy, intrigue and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their respective nations, and…

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

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These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the…

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“if all with doubts about the factual basis of their religion will but commit to their resolution through direct and unfettered inquiry,…

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The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them…

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In a chariot of light from the region of the day, the Goddess of Liberty came. She brought in her hand as…

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Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but it is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself…

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Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized…

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

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This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither…

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It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be…

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The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

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It is always to be taken for granted, that those who oppose an equality of rights never mean the exclusion should take…

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An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best…

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When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

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The Grecians and Romans were strongly possessed of the spirit of liberty but not the principle, for at the time they were…

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I fear not, I see not reason for fear. In the end we will be the victors. For though at times the…

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Call to mind the sentiments which nature has engraved on the heart of every citizen, and which take a new force when…

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The essential psychological requirement of a free society is the willingness on the part of the individual to accept responsibility for his…

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The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted…

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He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he…

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The Bill of Rights should contain the general principles of natural and civil liberty. It should be to a community what the…

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Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of…

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From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms! Through the land let the sound of it flee; Let the…

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A single legislature, on account of the superabundance of its power, and the uncontrolled rabidity of its execution, becomes as dangerous to…

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Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world,…

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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…