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Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.
-Thomas Paine
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And as to you, Sir, treacherous in private friendship and a hypocrite in public life, the world will be puzzled to decide whether you are an apostate or an impostor; whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether you ever had any.
-Thomas Paine
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The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.
-Thomas Paine
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Adversity
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These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. 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 conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
-Thomas Paine, The Crisis, 1776
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I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.
-Thomas Paine
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America
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If there is a country in the world where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up as it is of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into cordial unison. There the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. Industry is not mortified by the splendid extravagance of a court rioting at its expense. Their taxes are few, because their government is just: and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults.
-Thomas Paine
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Beginnings
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We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
-Thomas Paine
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Belief
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Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
-Thomas Paine
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Character
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Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and the angels know of us.
-Thomas Paine
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Character is much easier kept than recovered.
-Thomas Paine
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Citizenship
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Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS -- our inferior one varies with the place.
-Thomas Paine
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Democracy
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Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part.
-Thomas Paine
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Doubt
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Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
-Thomas Paine
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Duty
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I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, Well! give me peace in my day. Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace; and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.
-Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, 1780
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Emotions
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He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.
-Thomas Paine
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Freedom
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We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.
-Thomas Paine
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Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
-Thomas Paine
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Glory
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The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
-Thomas Paine
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Goodness
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My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
-Thomas Paine
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Government
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Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
-Thomas Paine, "Common Sense", 1776
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Humanity
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...the true greatness of a nation is founded on principles of humanity.
-Thomas Paine
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Human nature is not of itself vicious.
-Thomas Paine
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Hypocrisy
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It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
-Thomas Paine
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Identity
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Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
-Thomas Paine
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Liberty
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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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Books by and about Thomas Paine