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Thomas Paine

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Famous Thomas Paine Quotes

“The only idea man can affix to the name of God, is that of a first cause, the cause of all things. And, incomprehensibly difficult as it is for a man to conceive what a first cause is, he arrives at the belief of it, from the tenfold greater difficulty of disbelieving it. It is difficult beyond description to conceive that space can have no end; but it is more difficult to conceive an end. It is difficult beyond the power of man to conceive an eternal duration of what we call time; but it is more impossible to conceive a time when there shall be no time.”

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Book:Paine's Age of Reason, with Remarks, Containing a Vindication of the Doctrines of Christianity from the Aspersions of that Author. By a Citizen of the World [i.e. James Tytler]
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“The Creation speaks a universal language, independent of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.”

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Author:Thomas Paine
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“It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”

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Book:The Theological Works ...: The Most Complete Ed. Ever Pub
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“The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal.”

Has BeensMatterPhilosophySchoolEvilNaturalExistenceDoubtAtheismTeachingCreationEternalPropertyErrorsSpeciesCreatorAccomplishmentAcquireLabourInnatePupilsIngenuityNatural PhilosophyProperties Of Matter
Book:The Theological Works of Thomas Paine: To which are Added the Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar
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“I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils.”

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Book:The American Crisis
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“The earth, in its natural, uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race." As the land gets cultivated, "it is the value of the improvement, only, and not the earth itself, that is in individual property. Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community a ground-rent..to every person, rich or poor...because it is in lieu of the natural inheritance, which, as a right, belongs to every man, over and above the property he may have created, or inherited from those who did”

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Author:Thomas Paine
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“When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.”

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Book:THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…
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“As property, honestly obtained, is best secured by an equality of rights, so ill-gotten property depends for protection on a monopoly of rights. He who has robbed another of his property, will next endeavor to disarm him of his rights, to secure that property; for when the robber becomes the legislator he believes himself secure.”

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Book:The Political Writings of Thomas Paine: Secretary to the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the American Revolution : to which is Prefixed a Brief Sketch of the Author's Life
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“Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived. . . . "The Reign of Terror that raged in America during the latter end of the Washington Administration, and the whole of that of Adams, is enveloped in mystery to me. That there were men in the Government hostile to the representative system, was once their toast, though it is now their overthrow, and therefore the fact is established against them."”

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Author:Thomas Paine
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“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.”

MenStrongGrowsPrinciplesTroubleStrengthHe ManConflictConscienceHarderPerseverancePursueTriumphGloriousResolutionDistressBeing StrongConflict ResolutionStrength And WeaknessStrong WillStrength Of WillKeep RunningJust SmileCourage StrengthLittle MindsStrength And PerseveranceStrength WeaknessHuman StrengthSmile MorePerseverance In LoveLove StrengthHealth And StrengthWeakness And FearBrave And Strong
Author:Thomas Paine
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“The moral duty of man consists of imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God, manifested in the creation towards all his creatures. Everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals is a violation of moral duty”

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Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
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“The moral duty of man consists of imitatingthe moral goodness and beneficence of God,manifested in the creation, toward all His creatures.”

MenMoralCreationDutyCreaturesGoodnessVegetarianMoral DutyBeneficenceMoral Goodness
Book:THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…
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“It is the fable of Jesus Christ, as told in the New Testament, and the wild and visionary doctrine raised thereon, against which I contend. The story, taking it as it is told, is blasphemously obscene.”

StoriesFatherJesusChristReligiousJesus ChristRaisedDoctrineTestamentNew TestamentVisionariesFablesFounding Fathers ChristianObsceneFounding Fathers ReligionFounding Fathers ReligiousFounding Fathers Anti ReligionChristianity From Founding FathersReligion ChristianAgainst Religion
Book:The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology
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“In the first part of 'Rights of Man' I have endeavoured to show...that there does not exist a right to establish hereditary government...because hereditary government always means a government yet to come, and the case always is, that the people who are to live afterwards, have always the same right to choose a government for themselves, as the people had who have lived before them.”

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Author:Thomas Paine
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“There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, that is not to be found inany other system of religion. All other systems have something in them that either shock our reason, or are repugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, must stifle his reason in order to force himself to believe them.”

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Book:The Theological Works of Thomas Paine: To which are Added the Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar
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“Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another. It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.”

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Book:Rights of Man, Common Sense, and Other Political Writings
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“Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

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Book:Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution
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“The fable of Christ and his twelve apostles is a parody of the sun and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the Eastern world. Every thing told of Christ has reference to the sun. His reported resurrection is at sunrise, and that on the first day of the week; that is, on the day anciently dedicated to the sun, and from thence called Sunday.”

WorldFirstsChristSunWeekAncientSundayDedicatedResurrectionTwelveSunriseEasternApostlesFablesParodyDays Of The WeekZodiac
Book:COMMON SENSE (Political Classics Series): Advocating Independence to People in the Thirteen Colonies - Addressed to the Inhabitants of America
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