More Quotes by Thomas Paine
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 his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
A constitution defines and limits the powers of the government it creates. It therefore follows, as a natural and also a logical result, that the governmental exercise of any power not authorized by the constitution is an assumed power, and therefore illegal.
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to [profess] things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.
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.
Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
