Thomas Paine Quotations And Sayings

by allinspiration.com

Here is a collation of Thomas Paine quotations and sayings. Read what this English-American political activist, author, political theorist and revolutionary had to say about various issues.

“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
– Thomas Paine

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.”
– Thomas Paine

“A man does not serve God when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve.”
– Thomas Paine

“A man will pass better through the world with a thousand open errors upon his back than in being detected in one sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand are suspected.”
– Thomas Paine

“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”
– Thomas Paine

“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
– Thomas Paine

“All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.”
– Thomas Paine

“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”
– Thomas Paine

“An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws.”
– Thomas Paine

“Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.”
– Thomas Paine

“Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property… Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.”
– Thomas Paine

“As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith.”
– Thomas Paine

“Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.”
– Thomas Paine

“Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad.”
– Thomas Paine

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

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”
– Thomas Paine

“Could the peaceable principle of the Quakers be universally established, arms and the art of war would be wholly extirpated: But we live not in a world of angels…I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly agree with all the world to lay aside the use of arms, and settle matters by negotiation: but unless the whole will, the matter ends, and I take up my musket and thank Heaven He has put it in my power.”
– Thomas Paine

“Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin.”
– Thomas Paine

“Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God – as if the way to God was not open to every man alike.”
– Thomas Paine

“Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.”
– Thomas Paine

“Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.”
– Thomas Paine

“Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ’tis time to part.”
– Thomas Paine

“Everything wonderful in appearance has been ascribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Everything ancient has some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting everything.”
– Thomas Paine

“For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever, and tho’ himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.”
– Thomas Paine

“For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king and there ought to be no other.”
– Thomas Paine

“For though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.”
– Thomas Paine

“From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?”
– Thomas Paine

“From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.”
– Thomas Paine

“Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself – that is my doctrine.”
– Thomas Paine

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
– Thomas Paine

“he patronage which Britain has shown to Arts, Science and Literature has given her a better established and lasting rank in the world than she ever acquired by her arms.”
– Thomas Paine

“He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.”
– Thomas Paine

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”
– Thomas Paine

“He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.”
– Thomas Paine

“Hereditary succession has no claim. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho’ himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.”
– Thomas Paine

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