Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas Painewas an English-American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. One of the Founding Fathers of the United States, he authored the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and he inspired the rebels in 1776 to declare independence from Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era rhetoric of transnational human rights. He has been called "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination"...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth29 January 1736
CityThetford, England
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer...
The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
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.
The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.
From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms! Through the land let the sound of it flee; Let the far and the near all unite, with a cheer, In defense of our Liberty Tree.
Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.