The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
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.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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.
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.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
'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.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Time makes more converts than reason.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
These are the times that try men's souls.
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
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.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.
Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.
My mind is my own church.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
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.
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
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.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
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.
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
