“To pass from the extremes of danger to safety-from the tumult of war to the tranquility of peace, though sweet in contemplation,… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“There are certain circumstances, which, at the time of their happening, are a kind of riddles, and as every riddle is to… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“There never did, there never will, and there never can, exist a Parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“A good opinion of ourselves is exceedingly necessary in private life, but absolutely necessary in public life, and of the utmost importance… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“Ignorance is of a peculiar nature: once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not originally a thing of itself,… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“Separated from the rest of Europe, she has contracted an unsocial habit of manners, and imagines in others the jealousy she creates… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“The connection between vice and meanness is a fit subject for satire, but when the satire is a fact, it cuts with… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“It frequently happens that in proportion as we are taught to dislike persons and countries, not knowing why, we feel an ardor… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“We know the cause which we are engaged in, and though a passionate fondness for it may make us grieve at every… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“Were government a mere manufacture or article of commerce, immaterial by whom it should be made or sold, we might as well… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“for in proportion as the enemy despair of conquest, they will be trying the arts of seduction and the force of fear… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“There are stages in the business of serious life in which to assume is cruel, but to deceive is to destroy; and… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“There is something in a war carried on by invasion which makes it differ in circumstances from any other mode of war,… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better, whereas, natural… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“In the tremendous breaking forth of a whole people, in which all degrees, tempers and characters are confounded, delivering themselves, by a… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“I remember the late Admiral Saunders declaring in the House of Commons, and that in the time of peace, 'That the city… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
It is a faculty of the human mind to become what it contemplates, and to act in unison with its object. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“Misfortune and experience are lost upon mankind, when they produce neither reflection nor reformation. Evils, like poisons, have their uses, and there… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“In the progress of politics, as in the common occurrences of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“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 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