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 upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.
Thomas Paine

The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
Thomas Paine

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Thomas Paine

The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Thomas Paine

The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
Thomas Paine

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

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Thomas Paine

The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
Thomas Paine

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

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

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

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

These are the times that try men's souls.
Thomas Paine

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

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

Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine

'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

Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
Thomas Paine

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

To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
Thomas Paine