Thomas Paine Quotes (120 Quotes)

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.

Virtue is not hereditary.

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

The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing it is founded on nothing it rests on no principles it proceeds by no authority it has no data it can demonstrate nothing and it admits of no conclusion.

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

Let the world see that this nation can bear prosperity And that her honest virtue in time of peace is equal to her bravest valor in time of war.

The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Where, say some, is the king of America I'll tell you, friend, He reigns above.

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

Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived.... 'The Reign of Terror that raged in America during the latter end of the Washington Administration, and the whole of that of Adams, is enveloped in mystery to me. That there were men in the Government hostile to the representative system, was once their toast, though it is now their overthrow, and therefore the fact is established against them.'

The obscene and vulgar stories in the Bible are as repugnant to our ideas of the purity of a Divine Being, as the horrid cruelties and murders it ascribes to Him are repugnant to our ideas of His justice

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

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

The notion of the Trinity of Gods has enfeebled the belief in one God. A multiplication of beliefs acts as a division of belief and in proportion as anything is divided it is weakened.

When I see throughout this book, called the Bible, a history of the grossest vices and a collection of the most paltry and contemptible tales and stories, I could not so dishonor my Creator by calling it by His name

Reason obeys itself and ignorance does whatever is dictated to it.

The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.

Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn even from the bitterness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in the streets, whose mite is not in that mass.

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