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 most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
Time makes more converts than reason.
There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, that is not to be found inany other system of religion. All other systems have something in them that either shock our reason, or are repugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, must stifle his reason in order to force himself to believe them.
The birthday of a new world is at hand.
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
The idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as that of hereditary judges, or hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary mathematician, or an hereditary wise man; and as ridiculous as an hereditary poet-laureat.
When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir.
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
Government without a constitution, is a power without a right.
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS...