Thomas Paine

Citations

• My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
• Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous 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.
• Character is much easier kept than recovered.
• The declaration which says that God visits the sins of the fathers upon the children is contrary to every principle of moral justice.
• 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.
• A thing moderately good is not as good as it ought to be.
• Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
• 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.
• Society is produced by our wants; government by our wickedness.
• One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
• There are two distinct classes of men in the nation, those who pay taxes, and those who receive and live upon the taxes