Quotes from Thomas Paine

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.

Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.

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.

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.

The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.

Suspicion and persecution are weeds of the same dunghill, and flourish best together.

Mutual fear is a principal link in the chain of mutual love.

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.

The nearer any disease approaches to a crisis, the nearer it is to a cure. Danger and deliverance make their advances together; and it is only in the last push that one or the other takes the lead.

In a chariot of light from the region of the day, the Goddess of Liberty came. She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love, the plant she named Liberty Tree.

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

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

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

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.

Practical religion consists in doing good: and the only way of serving God is that of endeavoring to make His creation happy. All preaching that has not this for its object is nonsense and hypocrisy.

I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.

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

It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

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.

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

These are the times that try men's souls.