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Quotes by Thomas Paine


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.
– Thomas Paine
A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men.
– Thomas Paine
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
– Thomas Paine
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
– Thomas Paine
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
– Thomas Paine
Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.
– Thomas Paine
From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?
– Thomas Paine
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.
– Thomas Paine
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
– Thomas Paine
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
– Thomas Paine
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
– Thomas Paine
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
– Thomas Paine
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
– Thomas Paine
My mind is my own church.
– Thomas Paine
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
– Thomas Paine
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
– Thomas Paine
That government is best which governs least.
– Thomas Paine
The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.
– Thomas Paine
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
– Thomas Paine
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
– Thomas Paine
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
– Thomas Paine
The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
– Thomas Paine
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
These are times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
– Thomas Paine
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
– Thomas Paine
Time makes more converts than reason.
– Thomas Paine
Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
– Thomas Paine
To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.
– Thomas Paine
To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
– Thomas Paine
Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.
– Thomas Paine
We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.
– Thomas Paine
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
– Thomas Paine
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
– Thomas Paine
Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad.
– Thomas Paine
Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
– Thomas Paine
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
– Thomas Paine
War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.
– Thomas Paine
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.
– Thomas Paine
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
– Thomas Paine
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
– Thomas Paine
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
– Thomas Paine
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
– Thomas Paine
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
– Thomas Paine
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
– Thomas Paine
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
– Thomas Paine
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
– Thomas Paine
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.
– Thomas Paine
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
– Thomas Paine
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine
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.
– Thomas Paine