Thomas Paine Quotes.
A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men.
Thomas Paine - [Causes]
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being
right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon
subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine - [Thoughts and Thinking]
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 - [Moderation]
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 - [Religion]
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
Thomas Paine - [Belief]
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine - [Character]
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs
him to be bad.
Thomas Paine - [Religion]
Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the
weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part.
Thomas Paine - [Democracy]
He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy
resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying
bird.
Thomas Paine - [Emotions]
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.
Thomas Paine - [Liberty]
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
Thomas Paine - [Human Nature]
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 - [Creeds]
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 - [Churches]
I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow
brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is
firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto
death.
Thomas Paine - [Adversity]
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
Thomas Paine - [Questions]
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.
Thomas Paine - [Hypocrisy]
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 - [Integrity]
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 - [Causes]
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine - [Moderation]
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine - [Deeds and Good Deeds]
My own mind is my own church.
Thomas Paine - [Churches]
Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any
particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the
former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS -- our inferior one varies with the
place.
Thomas Paine - [Citizenship]
Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and the angels
know of us.
Thomas Paine - [Character]
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a
necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine - [Government]
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
Thomas Paine - [Suspicion]
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
Thomas Paine - [Appreciation]
The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
Thomas Paine - [Glory]
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply,
we esteem too lightly; 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.
Thomas Paine - [Obstacles]
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by
reflection.
Thomas Paine - [Smile]
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.
Thomas Paine - [Patriotism]
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine - [Purpose]
These are the times that try men's souls.
Thomas Paine - [Crisis]
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue
of supporting it.
Thomas Paine - [Freedom]
Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
Thomas Paine - [Nicknames]
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 - [War]
We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for
honest men to live in.
Thomas Paine - [Freedom]
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Thomas Paine - [New Beginning]
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives
everything its value.
Thomas Paine - [Value]
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the
horizon.
Thomas Paine - [Thoughts and Thinking]
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not
hereditary.
Thomas Paine - [Posterity]
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and
torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible
is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word
of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.
Thomas Paine - [Bible]