80 Thomas Paine Quotes From The Author of Common Sense

Looking for inspirational words by Thomas Paine? We have rounded up the best collection of Thomas Paine quotes, sayings, writings, speeches, and lines (with images and pictures) to inspire you about life, religion, government, freedom, and more.

Thomas Paine was an England-born political philosopher and writer (1737-1809). He helped shape many of the ideas that marked the Age of Revolution.

Thomas Paine is most famous for writing “Common Sense”, which would help fuel the American Revolution.

Published in 1776, his highly popular “Common Sense” was the first pamphlet to advocate American independence.

These inspirational words of wisdom by the great philosopher on important aspects of liberty, freedom, government, and other fundamental rights are deep and insightful.

Top 10 Thomas Paine Quotes

  1. “My mind is my own church.” – Thomas Paine                                                                                       
    quotes from thomas paine
    quotes from thomas paine

  2. “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.” – Thomas Paine

  3. “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine                                         
    thomas paine quotes
    thomas paine quotes

  4. “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” – Thomas Paine

  5. “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” – Thomas Paine

  6. “I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.” – Thomas Paine

  7. “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

  8. “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

  9. “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.” – Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine Quotes From Common Sense

Common Sense is a 47-page pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–1776 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies.

Writing in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government.

It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution and became an immediate sensation.

  1. “Time makes more converts than reason.” – Thomas Paine                                                                                   
    inspirational thomas paine quotes
    inspirational thomas paine quotes

  2. “When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

  3. “From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom,” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense                                                                                                                                                                   
    best thomas paine quotes
    best thomas paine quotes

  4. “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

  5. “Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the most improper to defend us.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

  6. “Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

  7. “In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology, there were no kings; the consequence of which was there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Famous Quotes By Thomas Paine 

  1. “Human nature is not of itself vicious.” – Thomas Paine

  2. “These are the times that try men’s souls.” – Thomas Paine                                                                 
    thomas paine quote
    thomas paine quote

  3. “One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.” – Thomas Paine

  4. “The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.” – Thomas Paine

  5. “Reason obeys itself, and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” – Thomas Paine

  6. “It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.” – Thomas Paine

  7. “Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice.” – Thomas Paine

  8. “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.” – Thomas Paine

  9. “If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.” – Thomas Paine

  10. “One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.” – Thomas Paine

  11. “Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one’s own efforts.” – Thomas Paine

  12. “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.” – Thomas Paine

  13. “Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.” – Thomas Paine

  14. “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 up on your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.” – Thomas Paine

Best Thomas Paine Quotes

  1. “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” – Thomas Paine                                                             
    Thomas Paine Quotes Images
    Thomas Paine Quotes Images

  2. “The slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.” – Thomas Paine

  3. “It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.” – Thomas Paine

  4. “It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.” – Thomas Paine

  5. “The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture.” – Thomas Paine

  6. “Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.” – Thomas Paine                                                                                                                                                                           
    famous thomas paine quotes
    famous thomas paine quotes

  7. “The greatest remedy for anger is delay.” – Thomas Paine

  8. “Suspicion is the companion of mean souls and the bane of all good society.” – Thomas Paine

  9. “I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.” – Thomas Paine                                                                                                                                                 
    thomas paine common sense quotes
    thomas paine common sense quotes

  10. “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” – Thomas Paine

  11. “The most effective process is that of improving the condition of man by means of his interest.” – Thomas Paine

  12. “There never yet was any truth or principle so irresistibly obvious, that all men believed it at once.” – Thomas Paine

  13. “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” – Thomas Paine

  14. “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.” – Thomas Paine

  15. “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

  16. “Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.” – Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine Quotes On Government & Religion

  1. “Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.” – Thomas Paine

  2. “The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.” – Thomas Paine

  3. “Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.” – Thomas Paine

  4. “A government which cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all.” – Thomas Paine

  5. “You cannot undermine police authority and then complain about rising crime.” – Thomas Paine

  6. “The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” – Thomas Paine

  7. “It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.” – Thomas Paine

  8. “Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.” – Thomas Paine

  9. “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” – Thomas Paine

  10. “Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.” – Thomas Paine

  11. “The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.” – Thomas Paine

  12. “[G]overning has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.” – Thomas Paine

  13. “It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments…” – Thomas Paine

  14. “That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.” – Thomas Paine

  15. “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.” – Thomas Paine

  16. “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion, but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.” – Thomas Paine

  17. “Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.” – Thomas Paine

  18. “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.” – Thomas Paine

  19. “To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.” – Thomas Paine

  20. “There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.” – Thomas Paine

  21. “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

  22. “When extraordinary power and extraordinary pay are allotted to any individual in a government, he becomes the center, round which every kind of corruption generates and forms.” – Thomas Paine

  23. “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.” – Thomas Paine

  24. “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.” – Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine Quotes On Liberty & Freedom

  1. “It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.” – Thomas Paine

  2. “When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.” – Thomas Paine

  3. “The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.” – Thomas Paine

  4. “When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” – Thomas Paine

  5. “Teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary punishments that corrupt mankind.” – Thomas Paine

  6. “When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” – Thomas Paine

  7. “It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.” – Thomas Paine

  8. “Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

  9. “But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.” – Thomas Paine

  10. “He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.” – Thomas Paine

  11. “Whatever the form or constitution of government may be, it ought to have no other object than general happiness.” – Thomas Paine

  12. “He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defense of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.” – Thomas Paine

  13. “It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by degrees, the consequences will be the same.” – Thomas Paine

  14. “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.” – Thomas Paine

  15. “No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.” – Thomas Paine

 

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