Thomas Paine

"There is a passion natural to the human heart which drives it to adore something."

"I have seen enough of one lifetime not to demand to see more; but task and passion show the man."

"Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed."

"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty."

"The more perfectible men are, the more susceptible are they of improvement, and the more they perfect themselves, the greater confidence may be placed in their integrity."

"It is impossible that an error so palpable in its consequences can be long supported, unless by errors equally gross to prop it up."

"Silence is sometimes an argument of consent, but generally it is one of prudence."

"The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem, the seat of the occurrences which have furnished the very basis of theology."

"I have found the spring and the fountain head of poetry. He who has a true relish for reading is in possession of an infinite variety of friends and companions."

"Arms are excellent things to those who know how to use them; but the musket ought not to be the measure of the mind."

"It is the nature of truth to prove itself."

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

"The Creator implants in every creature certain desires and propensities fitted to its preservation and happiness."

"Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the ages and generations which preceded it."

"I have nothing to do with that, though I am sorry to say it."

"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance."

"My mind is my own church; no priest controls my thoughts."

"Obedience is a virtue that belongs to animals that are tamed; it has no place amongst men."

"Character is much easier kept than recovered."

"The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war."

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

"The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty."

"I do not mean to exclude religion as a motive to action in this world; but acting, as I then did, in a political sphere, as a member of a government which was very strictly deistical, I found it necessary to exclude it from my arguments, lest it should be made a tool of by enemies."

"Nothing can be more destructive to good faith and confidence between men than the making of a solemn compact, a promise or agreement, and the not fulfilling of it."

"The heart that is really pure is always humble."

"The free, unprompted will of man is all that conscience can claim."

"Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow."

"One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in succession is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion."

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest."

"Modesty should always accompany knowledge, but generally does not."