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

This collection brings together several key writings by Thomas Paine, a prominent figure of the Enlightenment era. It includes 'Common Sense,' which argued for American independence from British rule; 'Rights of Man,' a defense of the French Revolution and critique of monarchy; 'The Age of Reason,' a deistic examination of organized religion and the Bible; 'An Essay on Dream,' a short piece on the nature of dreams; 'Biblical Blasphemy,' a critical analysis of biblical texts; and 'Examination of the Prophecies,' a scrutiny of biblical prophecies. The volume offers readers access to Paine's rationalist and revolutionary ideas that influenced political and religious thought in the late 18th century. more

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Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine, born on February 9, 1737, and died on June 8, 1809, was a prominent American writer, political figure, and philosopher during the American Revolutionary War. He is renowned for his radical democratic ideas and his contributions to the American independence movement. more

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“They may be all comprehended under three heads - 1st, Superstition; 2d, Power; 3d, the common interests of society, and the common rights of man.”

“The first was a government of priestcraft, the second of conquerors, and the third of reason.”

“Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but it is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, and the other of granting it. The one is the pope, armed with fire and fagot, and the other is the pope selling or granting indulgences.”

“Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death, and religiosu wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose they, but from this impious thing called religion, and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man?”

“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.”

“But though every created thing is, in this sense, a mystery, the word mystery cannot be applied to moral truth, any more than obscurity can be applied to light. ... Mystery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that obscures truth, and represents it in distortion. Truth never envelops itself in mystery, and the mystery in which it is at any time enveloped is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself.”