Thomas Paine

"Nature has been kind enough to supply us with everything necessary to our happiness if we would but use it rightly."

"The perfection of manners is the perfection of appearance."

"The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind."

"To say that any people are not fit for freedom is to make poverty their choice and to say they had rather be slaves."

"The condition of mankind is not usually displayed in a crowd, but is better to be found in the few."

"Nothing is more common than to confuse the liberty of conscience with the liberty of action."

"Property is not natural right but a civil right."

"A man who conceals his opinion either fears or hates his fellow men."

"All the great events of history are the results of a slow accumulation of change."

"The mind is capable of being enlarged in proportion as the heart is enlarged."

"The enlightened of every nation will always be friends and brothers."

"Virtue and happiness are the ultimate objects of philosophy."

"The monument to Washington is not stone or marble—it is the liberty of America."

"No man has a right to do wrong; no man has a right to tell another to do wrong."

"The condition of the laboring poor cannot be improved except through an enlightened nation."

"I believe in personal responsibility and the capacity of individuals to govern themselves."

"When we depart from the principles of our nature, we become self-enemies."