Thomas Paine Quote

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“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: Common Sense (1776)

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“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: Complete Works (1859 edition)

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“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

Source/Notes: The Age of Reason, Part 1 (1793)

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“An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.”

- Thomas Paine

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“Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.”

- Thomas Paine

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“Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.”

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: The life and writings of Thomas Paine: containing a biography (1908), p. 183, "Thoughts on Defensive War"

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“Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.”

- Thomas Paine

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“But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.”

- Thomas Paine

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“Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: The American Crisis (1776–1783)

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“Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.”

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America (1856 edition)

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“Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.”

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: The Age of Reason: In Two Parts (1827 edition)

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

- Thomas Paine

Source/Notes: Common Sense (1776)

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“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

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“He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.”

- Thomas Paine

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Thomas Paine Quote

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