When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly it borders on the ridiculous. — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as that of hereditary judges, or hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
If men will permit themselves to think, as rational beings ought to think, nothing can appear more ridiculous and absurd, exclusive of… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“As to the fragments of morality that are irregularly and thinly scattered in those books [the Bible], they make no part of… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“It is not then the existence or the non-existence, of the persons that I trouble myself about; it is the fable of… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
“Though it is not a direct article of the christian system that this world that we inhabit is the whole of the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the ages and generations which preceded… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
Paper money is like dram-drinking, it relieves for a moment by deceitful sensation, but gradually diminishes the natural heat, and leaves the… — Thomas Paine Copy Share Image
To believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders the Christian faith… — 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
