Thomas Paine Quotes

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

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.

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.

These are the times that try men’s souls.

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

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.

Human nature is not of itself vicious.

Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.

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.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

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.

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.

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