The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Author
Thomas Paine
72 quotations
About Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. His pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the American Revolution. Paine advanced Enlightenment-era arguments for human rights that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic.
Read on Wikipedia → Find books by Thomas PaineWe have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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.
'Tis the business of little minds to shrink but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
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The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
These are the times that try men's souls.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Reputation is what men and women think of us character is what God and angels know of us.
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose cons…
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 be…
Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one.
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.