Top 25 Quotes by Thomas Paine of 526 - Page 18

I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone.

I would give worlds, if I had them, if The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help! Stay with me! It is hell to be left alone.

Thomas Paine

Giving, Age, World

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

Real, Tyrants, Rebel

Thomas Paine (2016). “THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…”, p.46, e-artnow

The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.

Thomas Paine

Fate, Religion, Foundation

Richard Watson, Thomas Paine (1855). “Apology for the Bible: In a Series of Letters Addressed to Thomas Paine, Author of The Age of Reason”, p.133

All men can understand what representation is; and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.

Thomas Paine

Men, Political, Politics

Thomas Paine (1856). “Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.97

Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!

Thomas Paine

Lying, Religion, Church

Thomas Paine (2015). “The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies”, p.298, Ravenio Books

It appears to general observation, that revolutions create genius and talents; but those events do no more than bring them forward. There is existing in man, a mass of sense lying in a dormant state, and which, unless something excites it to action, will descend with him, in that condition, to the grave. As it is to the advantage of society that the whole of its faculties should be employed, the construction of government ought to be such as to bring forward, by a quiet and regular operation, all that extent of capacity which never fails to appear in revolutions.

Thomas Paine

Lying, Men, Events

Thomas Paine (1856). “Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.94

Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin.

Thomas Paine

Remembrance, Atheism, Positive Atheism

Thomas Paine (1826). “An Essay on the Origin of Free Masonry”, p.9

We do not admit the authority of the church with respect to its pretended infallibility, its manufactured miracles, its setting itself up to forgive sins. It was by propagating that belief and supporting it with fire that she kept up her temporal power.

Thomas Paine

Religious, Father, Fire

Thomas Paine (1824). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine”, p.341

It is, I believe, impossible to find in any story upon record so many and such glaring absurdities, contradictions, and falsehoods, as are in the books [The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John]. They are more numerous and striking than I had any expectation of finding, when I began this examination.

Thomas Paine

Believe, Book, Expectations

The United States of America will sound as pompously in the world or in history as The Kingdom of Great Britain.

Thomas Paine

America, Historical, Sound

Thomas Paine (1819). “The American Crisis”, p.20

And this manner of speaking of the Almighty, as one would speak of a man, is consistent with nothing but the stupidity of the Bible.

Thomas Paine

Bible, Men, Stupidity

Thomas Paine (1821). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine”, p.82

People in general know not what wickedness there is in this pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition, they take it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good; they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas they form of the benevolence of the Almighty to the book which they have been taught to believe was written by his authority. Good heavens! It is quite another thing; it is a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy.

Thomas Paine

Lying, Believe, Book

Thomas Paine, John P. Kaminski (2002). “Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion”, p.52, Rowman & Littlefield

Whence arose all the horrid assassinations of whole nations of men, women, and infants, with which the Bible is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death, and religiosu wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose they, but from this impious thing called religion, and this monstrous belief that God has spoken to man?

Thomas Paine

War, Men, Blood

Thomas Paine (1824). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine”, p.151

We ought therefore to suspect that a great mass of information respecting the Bible, and the introduction of it into the world, has been suppressed by the united tyranny of Church and State, for the purpose of keeping people in ignorance, and which ought to be known.

Thomas Paine

Bible, Ignorance, People

Thomas Paine (1830). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine: To which are Added the Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar”, p.364

It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

Thomas Paine

Taken, Consideration, Magnitude

It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.

Thomas Paine

Justice Of God, Evil, Moral

When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.

Thomas Paine

Passion, Men, Tongue

Thomas Paine (1856). “Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution”, p.5

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

Thomas Paine

Government, Ideas, Clear

Thomas Paine (1791). “Rights of man: being an answer to Mr. Burke's attack on the French Revolution, etc”, p.22

A man will pass better through the world with a thousand open errors upon his back than in being detected in one sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand are suspected.

Thomas Paine

Men, Errors, Atheism

Thomas Paine (2016). “THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…”, p.700, e-artnow

It is the object only of war that makes it honorable.

Thomas Paine

War, Honorable, Objects

The American Crisis, 21 Mar. 1778

I fear not, I see not reason for fear. In the end we will be the victors. For though at times the flame of liberty may cease to shine, the ember will never expire.

Thomas Paine

Flames, Shining, Liberty

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

Pain, Motivation, Enemy

Thomas Paine (2016). “THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…”, p.77, e-artnow

"Government," says Swift, "is a plain thing, and fitted to the capacity of many heads."

Thomas Paine

Government, Political, Politics

Thomas Paine (2011). “Rights of Man”, p.231, Broadview Press

Thus commerce, though in itself a moral nullity, has had a considerable influence in tempering the human mind....he trades with the same countries ...(that he) would have gone to war with.

Thomas Paine

Country, War, Mind

There now remain only a few books, which they call books of the lesser prophets; and as I have already shown that the greater are impostors, it would be cowardice to disturb the repose of the little ones. Let them sleep, then, in the arms of their nurses, the priests, and both be forgotten together.

Thomas Paine

Book, Sleep, Nurse

Thomas Paine (1830). “The Theological Works of Thomas Paine: To which are Added the Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar”, p.123