Thomas Paine

The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.

— Thomas Paine

These are the days that try man's heart.

— Thomas Paine

“Virtue is not hereditary.”

— Thomas Paine

Human nature is not of itself vicious.

— Thomas Paine

Wisdom is not the purchase of a day

— Thomas Paine

My country is wherever liberty lives.

— Thomas Paine

The Sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.

— Thomas Paine

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

— Thomas Paine

Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.

— Thomas Paine

If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected; if not, they will be despised.

— Thomas Paine

Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches.

— Thomas Paine

There is something absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.

— Thomas Paine

The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.

— Thomas Paine

“Whether we sleep or wake, the vast machinery of the universe still goes on.”

— Thomas Paine

For the fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.

— Thomas Paine

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

— Thomas Paine

“a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a…

— Thomas Paine

I do not believe in the creed professed by any church that I know of. Each of these churches accuse the other…

— Thomas Paine

That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the…

— Thomas Paine

It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

— Thomas Paine

When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to [profess] things he does not believe,…

— Thomas Paine

Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles; he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to…

— Thomas Paine

“I would give worlds, if I had them, that the Age of Reason had never been published. Oh, god, save me; for…

— Thomas Paine

“the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered;”

— Thomas Paine

“I have furnished myself with a Bible and Testament; and I can say also that I have found them to be much…

— Thomas Paine

We do not admit the authority of the church with respect to its pretended infallibility, its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up…

— Thomas Paine

“The christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ,…

— Thomas Paine

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to…

— Thomas Paine

It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest…

— Thomas Paine

The story of the redemption will not stand examination. That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple by…

— Thomas Paine

“All this is nothing better than the jargon of a conjuror, who picks up phrases he does not understand to confound the…

— Thomas Paine

“The christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ,…

— Thomas Paine

“SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only…

— Thomas Paine

“If, to expose the fraud and imposition of monarchy ... to promote universal peace, civilization, and commerce, and to break the chains…

— Thomas Paine

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only…

— Thomas Paine

“If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made…

— Thomas Paine

The Church was resolved to have a New Testament, and as, after the lapse of more than three hundred years, no handwriting…

— Thomas Paine

Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. It is…

— Thomas Paine

“The first chapter of Matthew begins with giving a genealogy of Jesus Christ; and in the third chapter of Luke there is…

— Thomas Paine

Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a…

— Thomas Paine