Thomas Paine quotes

Born
February 9, 1737 Thetford, Norfolk, Great Britain.

Died
June 8, 1809.

Occupation
Writer.

Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
– Thomas Paine

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
– Thomas Paine

My mind is my own church.
– Thomas Paine

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
– Thomas Paine

Character is much easier kept than recovered.
– Thomas Paine

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
– Thomas Paine

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
– Thomas Paine

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

Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
– Thomas Paine

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
– Thomas Paine

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
– Thomas Paine

Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one’s own efforts.
– Thomas Paine

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.
– Thomas Paine

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

The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
– Thomas Paine

It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
– Thomas Paine

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

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

Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
– Thomas Paine

We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.
– Thomas Paine

That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
– Thomas Paine

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
– Thomas Paine

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
– Thomas Paine

Human nature is not of itself vicious.
– Thomas Paine

‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
– 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

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
– Thomas Paine

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
– Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men’s souls.
– Thomas Paine

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
– Thomas Paine

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
– Thomas Paine

That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
– Thomas Paine

There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.
– 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

I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
– Thomas Paine

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
– 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

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
– Thomas Paine

Time makes more converts than reason.
– Thomas Paine

To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
– 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

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
– Thomas Paine