Read Thomas Paine Quotes from his own writings and letters from the years
1775 and 1776. Most of the quotes on this page are from Thomas Paine's works
The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason.
Paine moved to England in 1787 and wrote The Rights of Man in defense
of the French Revolution. It focused on the idea that the nobility did not have an inherent
right to govern the masses. It was predictably popular in England and became outlawed. Paine
was tried for sedition against the crown, but escaped to France in 1792. The The
Age of Reason was written by Paine to counter the French Revolution's promotion
of atheism. As a deist, Paine believed in a Creator God, but did not believe in the divine
inspiration of the Bible. This belief led to widespread criticism of the work by the same
Founding Fathers that had praised his earlier works.
These Thomas Paine Quotes are listed chronologically and there are links to
more before and after this time period at the bottom of the page.
"The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis,
shrink from the service of their country." - Pennsylvania Journal,
December 19, 1785
"War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and
unsupposed circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the
end. It has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes." -
Prospects on the Rubicon, 1787
"It has been the error of schools to teach astronomy, and all the
other sciences and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments
only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference
to the Being who is the Author of them: for all the principles of
science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive
principles; he can only discover them, and he ought to look through
the discovery to the Author. When we examine an extraordinary piece
of machinery, an astonishing pile of architecture, a well-executed
statue, or a highly-finished painting where life and action are imitated,
and habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for
cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the extensive
genius and talent of the artist. When we study the elements of geometry,
we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation, we think of Newton.
How, then, is it that when we study the works of God in creation, we
stop short and do not think of God? It is from the error of the schools
in having taught those subjects as accomplishments only and thereby
separated the study of them from the Being who is the Author of them...
The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools in teaching
natural philosophy as an accomplishment only has been that of generating
in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works
of creation to the Creator Himself, they stop short and employ the
knowledge they acquire to create doubts of His existence. They labor
with studied ingenuity to ascribe everything they behold to innate
properties of matter and jump over all the rest by saying that matter
is eternal. And when we speak of looking through nature up to nature’s
God, we speak philosophically the same rational language as when we
speak of looking through human laws up to the power that ordained them.
God is the power of first cause, nature is the law, and matter is the
subject acted upon. But infidelity, by ascribing every phenomenon to
properties of matter, conceives a system for which it cannot account
and yet it pretends to demonstrate." - Discourse at the Society
of Theophilanthropists in Paris, 1787
"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." - Dissertation on First Principles of
Government, December 23, 1791
"If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those
which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy
hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of
industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is
continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and
taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to
escape without tribute." - The Rights of Man, Part 1, 1791
"(Edmund Burke) 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." - The Rights of
Man, Part 1, 1791
"I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion
but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because
I thought them improper, but have declined rewards I might with
reputation have accepted, it is no wonder that meanness and imposition
appear disgustful. Independence is my happiness, and I view things as
they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world,
and my religion is to do good." - The Rights of Man, Part 1, 1791
"Man is not the enemy of man but through the medium of a false system
of government." - The Rights of Man, Part 1, 1791
"Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as
rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.
But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks,
and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing." - The Rights
of Man, Part 2, 1791
"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." - The Rights of Man, Part 2, 1792
"Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself
that is my doctrine." - The Rights of Man, Part 2, 1792
"A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that
moves a nation." - The Rights of Man, Part 2, 1792
"A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to
remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government
only that requires ignorance for its support." - The Rights of Man,
Part 2, 1792
"Reason obeys itself; and ignorance does whatever is dictated to it." -
The Rights of Man, Conclusion, 1792
"Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation,
or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by
God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God
came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God
(the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches
accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all." -
The Age of Reason, Part 1, 1793
"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." - The Age of
Reason, Part 1, 1793
"Whenever we read the obscene stories the voluptuous debaucheries, the
cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with
which more than half the bible is filled, it would be more consistent
that we call it the word of a demon rather than the word of god. It
is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize
mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything
that is cruel." - The Age of Reason, Part 1, 1793
"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 believe." - The
Age of Reason, Part 1, 1793
"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." - The Age of
Reason, Part 1, 1793
"When authors and critics talk of the sublime, they see not how nearly
it borders on the ridiculous." - The Age of Reason, Part 1, 1793
"It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation
that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation
is necessarily limited to the first communication. After this, it is only
an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to
him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be
incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner, for it was not a revelation
made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him." - The
Age of Reason, Part 1, 1793
"But if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they not
present themselves every hour to our eyes? Do we not see a fair creation
prepared to receive us the instant we are born - a world furnished to
our hands, that cost us nothing? Is it we that light up the sun, that
pour down the rain, and fill the earth with abundance? Whether we sleep
or wake, the vast machinery of the universe still goes on. Are these
things, and the blessings they indicate in future, nothing to us? Can
our gross feelings be excited by no other subjects than tragedy and
suicide? Or is the gloomy pride of man become so intolerable, that
nothing can flatter it but a sacrifice of the Creator?" - The Age
of Reason, Part 1, 1793
If you liked these Thomas Paine Quotes, you might like to read the complete text of Thomas Paine's Common Sense here.
More Quotes from Thomas Paine
Go to Thomas Paine Quotes page 1
Go to Thomas Paine Quotes page 2
Go to Thomas Paine Quotes page 4
George Washington Quotes
Ben Franklin Quotes
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
John Adams Quotes
James Madison Quotes
Patrick Henry Quotes
Samuel Adams Quotes
Revolutionary War and Beyond Home
© 2008 - 2022 Revolutionary-War-and-Beyond.com Dan & Jax Bubis
Facebook Comments