Thomas Paine Quotes

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Thomas Paine

Profession : Activist

Birth : January 29, 1737

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.

Thomas Paine

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.

Thomas Paine

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

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Thomas Paine

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

Thomas Paine

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.

Thomas Paine

That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.

Thomas Paine

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Thomas Paine

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Thomas Paine

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

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.

Thomas Paine

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

Thomas Paine

The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.

Thomas Paine

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

Thomas Paine

Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.

Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men's souls.

Thomas Paine

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

The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.

Thomas Paine

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.

Thomas Paine