Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenGovernmentReligionWorldIfsReasonLibertyPoliticalPrinciplesWarBelieveAge Of ReasonMotivationPoliticsCountryMankindHumansMayAtheismNations

Famous Thomas Paine Quotes

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

MenLifeInspirationalWarMotivationalMotivationFreedomLibertyBlessingIndependenceLibertarianFourthPatriotFatigue4th Of JulyJulyReapFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyOur Founding FathersProperty RightsLimited GovernmentTotal WarIndependence DayUs Founding FathersForefathersFireworksFounding Fathers Of AmericaFounding AmericaAmerican PatrioticAmerican LibertyAmerica FreedomIndependence Day PatrioticJuly 4th 1776Price Of FreedomRevolution Founding FathersUsa PatrioticIndependence And FreedomAmerican FreedomHappy Independence Day Usa4th Of July InspirationalHappy Independence Day IndiaHappy Independence DayFourth Of July Inspirational4th Of July WishesInspiring Independence DayUsa PatriotismHappy 4th Of JulyFunny 4th Of JulyPatriotism And FreedomAmerican Independence DayInspiring PatrioticPatriotic ReligiousUnnecessary War4th Of July Military
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“These are the times that try men's souls.”

MenTryingSoulAmericaMotivationTimeLibertyRevolutionAdversityCrisisLibertarianTyrannyRevolutionaryPatriotismPatrioticAmerican HistoryPatriot4th Of JulyTough TimesCommandersFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsAmerican RevolutionLimited GovernmentGreat AmericanForefathersVeterans DayPredicamentsAmerican PatrioticGreat PatrioticInaugural AddressAmerican PatriotismEternal VigilanceAmerican LibertyFounding Fathers DemocracyAmerican PatriotTimes Of CrisisJuly 4th 1776Patriotism In AmericaRevolution Founding FathersMilitary ManMilitary SoldierColonists
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.”

MenReasonPhilosophyUseHumanityAuthorityMedicineAtheistArguingScriptureContemptStubbornness
Book:Common Sense, The Rights of Man and Other Essential Writings of ThomasPaine
Create image

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

MenLoveTryingSoulCountryAmericaLibertySummerMen And WomenDeserveCrisisSoldierLibertarianThanksRevolutionaryPatriotismSunshinePatrioticPatriotShrinksFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsAmerican RevolutionLimited GovernmentForefathersInspirational MilitaryAmerican PatrioticGreat PatrioticAmerican PatriotismEternal VigilanceAmerican LibertyAmerican PatriotPatriotism In AmericaMilitary ManInspirational PatrioticMilitary Soldier
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity. Too absurd for belief, too impossible to convince, and too inconsistent for practice, it renders the heart torpid or produces only atheists or fanatics. As an engine of power, it serves the purpose of despotism, and as a means of wealth, the avarice of priests, but so far as respects the good of man in general it leads to nothing here or hereafter.”

MenHeartMeanReasonPurposeReligionBeliefWealthChristianityPracticeImpossibleProduceAtheistAbsurdConvincePriestsEnginesAlmightyContradictoryFanaticsHereafterAvariceDespotismInconsistentChristian TheologyDerogatory
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.”

MenDifferentMightChangeDifferencesFreedomOpinionSupportRightsMinesSlaveEqualityDenyEvery ManChanging The WorldFreedom Of SpeechSkepticismEqual RightsMaking ChangesOpen MindedFreedom Of ThoughtBeing DifferentAge Of ReasonIndividual Differences
Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
Create image

“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.”

MenMightForeverBirthDegreesDeserveDecentHonourPerpetualPreferenceUnworthyDescendants
Book:Common Sense: With the Whole Appendix: the Address to the Quakers: Also, the Large Additions
Create image

“Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.”

IfsMenMindBelieveMayDoeLyingReligionBeliefMoralImpossibleSocietyCrimePreparedHypocrisyInfidelityMischiefChastityHonest TruthReligion And GovernmentAge Of Reason
Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
Create image

“That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord and cultivate predjudices between nations, it becomes the more unpardonable.”

MenWarCountryGovernmentNationsStudyConcernedShockingQuarrelsDiscord
Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
Create image

“If men will permit themselves to think, as rational beings ought to think, nothing can appear more ridiculous and absurd, exclusive of all moral reflections, than to be at the expence of building navies, filling them with men, and then hauling them into the ocean, to try which can sink each other fastester. Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infintely more advantage than any victory with all its expence. But this, though it best answers the purpose of Nations, does not that of Court Governments, whose habited policy is pretence for taxation, places, and offices.”

IfsThinkingMenTryingDoeGovernmentPurposeNationsAnswersMoralPolicyBuildingOughtVictoryCostOfficeOceanReflectionAdvantageCourtRidiculousRationalAbsurdPermitTaxationFillingNavyExclusivePretence
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“The Almighty Lecturer, by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to imitation. It is as if He has said to the inhabitants of this globe that we call ours, "I have made an earth for man to dwell upon, and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort, and learn from my munificence to all to be kind to each other.”

IfsMenKindArtMadeSaidEarthUniverseHeavenPrinciplesTeachStudyComfortStructureVisibleBe KindAlmightyGlobesImitationInvitedLecturerAge Of Reason
Book:The age of reason
Create image

“Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant.”

MenMayMadeImpossibleIgnoranceAbsenceIgnorantPeculiar
Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
Create image

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. '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.”

MenGivingMindHeartLittlesPurposeValuesGrowsPrinciplesTroubleStrengthHuman NatureHe ManConflictReflectionConscienceEncouragementHarderBravePerseveranceEsteemPursueTriumphFirmGloriousResolutionDistressShrinksBeing StrongStrength And WeaknessStrong WillKeep RunningStrength Of MindLittle MindsStrength And PerseveranceStrength WeaknessPerseverance In LoveWeakness And Fear
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once. Time and reason must cooperate with each other to the final establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy.”

MenFirstsMayReasonMomentsHappensTruthMoralOpinionPrinciplesRevolutionFinalsObviousConvictionConvincedExpectedEvery ManEstablishmentMoral Principles
Book:Dissertation on First-principles of Government
Create image

“When I contemplate the natural dignity of man; when I feel (for Nature has not been kind enough to me to blunt my feelings) for the honor and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon.”

IfsMenFeelsKindEnoughCharacterFeelingsForceNaturalLibertyMankindFoolHonorDignityPositive AtheismFraudContemplatingDisgustingBluntIrritatedKnaves
Book:The Rights of Man: With a Brief Historical Preface
Create image

“It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.”

MenGovernmentFormLawIndividualNationsLibertyPrinciplesMankindParticularDutyOughtConstitutionEvery ManDiscussionReasoningExpensesDefectsParity
Book:Paine: Political Writings
Create image

“Government ought to be as much open to improvement as anything which appertains to man, instead of which it has been monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race. Need we any other proof of their wretched management, than the excess of debts and taxes with which every nation groans, and the quarrels into which they have precipitated the world?"”

MenWorldNeedsHumansHas BeensGovernmentAgeNationsRaceLibertyOughtTaxesManagementDebtLibertarianProofImprovementIgnorantHuman RaceExcessLibertarianismViciousWretchedQuarrels
Book:Thomas Paine: Collected Writings: Common Sense / The American Crisis / Rights of: (Library of America #76)
Create image

“The mere man of pleasure is miserable in old age, and the mere drudge in business is but little better, whereas, natural philosophy, mathematical and mechanical science, are a continual source of tranquil pleasure, and in spite of the gloomy dogmas of priests and of superstition, the study of these things is the true theology; it teaches man to know and admire the Creator, for the principles of science are in the creation, and are unchangeable and of divine origin.”

KnowsMenLittlesPhilosophyAgeScienceNaturalPleasurePrinciplesKnowledgeTeachStudyCreationDivineSourceAccountsMathematicsMiseryMereCreatorTheologyAdmireOld AgeMiserableMathematicalSpitePriestsSuperstitionsDogmaGloomyTranquilUnchangeableNatural Philosophy
Book:The age of reason
Create image

“In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and repossession, and suffer his reason and feelings to determine for themselves; and that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of man, and generously enlarge his view beyond the present day.”

MenReasonCharacterFactsFeelingsScienceSufferingSimpleViewsCommonReaderOffersPagesArgumentPrejudiceDetermineFollowingCommon SenseSettlingPresent DayTrue Character
Author:Thomas Paine
Create image

“The prejudice of unfounded belief often degenerates into the prejudice of custom, and becomes at last rank hypocrisy. When men, from custom or fashion or any worldly motive, profess or pretend to believe what they do not believe, nor can give any reason for believing, they unship the helm of their morality, and being no longer honest to their own minds they feel no moral difficulty in being unjust to others.”

MenGivingFeelsMindBelieveReasonLastsReligionBeliefMoralAtheismHonestFashionMoralityDifficultyPrejudiceMotiveHypocrisyCustomsUnjustWorldlyDegeneratesHelm
Book:The Age of Reason, etc
Create image

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.”

MenGovernmentPainCasesRightsSubjectsVoteElectionSlaveryPrimariesVotingProtectedRepresentatives
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…
Create image

“The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.”

MenEndsGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsNaturalLibertyRightsSecurityPropertyResistanceOppressionAssociationPreservation
Book:The Political Writings of Thomas Paine ...: Prospects on the Rubicon. Rights of man, part I. Rights of man, part II. Letter to the authors of the Republican. Letter to the Abbe Sieyes. Address to the addressers. Letters to Lord Onslow. Dissertation on the first principles of government. Speech delivered in the French National convention. Letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas. The decline and fall of the English system of finance. Letter to the people of France. Reasons for preserving the life of Louis
Create image

“A government of our own is our natural right; and when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance.”

MenHumansGovernmentFormNaturalChanceInterestingEventsConstitutionAffairConvincedWiserDeliberate
Book:Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion
Create image

“It is a fool only, and not the philosopher, nor even the prudent man, that will live as if there were no God... Were a man impressed as fully and strongly as he ought to be with the belief of a God, his moral life would be regulated by the force of belief; he would stand in awe of God and of himself, and would not do the thing that could not be concealed from either.”

IfsMenWould BeReligionBeliefForceMoralFoolOughtMoralityPhilosopherAweImpressedConcealedPrudentMoral Life
Book:The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies
Create image

“The times that tried men's souls are over-and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.”

MenWorldSoulRevolutionAccomplishedAmerican Revolution
Book:The Crisis: A Work Written While with the Army of the Revolution, with a View of Stimulating that Patriotic Band to Persevere in Their Glorious Struggle for the Rights of Man
Create image