A taste for literature and a turn for business, united in the same person, never fails to make a great man.

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

America is destined to be peopled by one nation, speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs

What havoc has been made of books through every century of the Christian era? Where are fifty gospels, condemned as spurious by the bull of Pope Gelasius? Where are the forty wagon-loads of Hebrew manuscripts...

The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not

We think ourselves possessed, or, at least, we boast that we are so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects, and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment in all cases, and yet...

A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.

Idleness is sweet, and its consequences are cruel

The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity

It really crackles back and forth with dialogue, especially in the first act, where people really scream at one another, as they should.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write .

Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the...

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing

This was the strongest earthquake in the last decade in this area.

The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion

Daughter! Get you an honest Man for a Husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the Honour and moral Character of the Man more than all...

The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that… and all the glory of it.

The people have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers

I know not whether any man in the world has had more influence on its inhabitants or affairs for the last 30 years than Tom Paine.

The most sensible and jealous people are so little attentive to government that there are no instances of resistance until repeated, multiplied oppressions have placed it beyond a doubt that their rulers had formed settled...

It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished.But if innocence itself is...

Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.

So great is my veneration for the Bible that the earlier my children begin to read it the more confident will be my hope that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable...

My country has, in its wisdom, contrived for me the most insignificant office (the Vice-Presidency) that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived

It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, … with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other …

…Turn our thoughts, in the next place, to the characters of learned men. The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians,...

Power always thinks… that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all his laws.

Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart

Think of your forefathers! Think of your posterity!

There is in the Congress a collection of the greatest men upon this continent in point of abilities, virtues, and fortunes

From the time we became an independant nation, it was as much a law of nature that this would become our claim as that the Mississippi should flow to sea.

There is nothing in which mankind have been more unanimous [founding nations upon superstition]; yet nothing can be inferred from it more than this, that the multitude have always been credulous, and the few artful....

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion… in private self-defense.

Everyone is stable at this time. If their condition appears to weaken, they will be brought to the hospital and either fed intravenously or nose fed,

If (the) empire of superstition and hypocrisy should be overthrown, happy indeed will it be for the world; but if all religion and morality should be overthrown with it, what advantages will be gained? The...

…Defeat appears to me preferable to total Inaction.

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and...

Birth and wealth together have prevailed over virtue and talent in all ages

My critics feel there was a lack of fairness in the opera, because the Palestinians are treated with romantic harmonies and choruses of longing, and the Jews are treated unfairly because all we hear about...

I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough…the more one reads the more one sees we have to read.

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.

I am persuaded there is among the mass of our people a fund of wisdom, integrity, and humanity which will preserve their happiness in a tolerable measure

The insanity defense is so rooted in our common law as to be protected under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Vanity, I am sensible, is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly; and I am in continual danger, when in company, of being led an ignis fatuus chase by it

Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at; for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost

There are persons whom in my heart I despise, others I abhor. Yet I am not obliged to inform the one of my contempt, nor the other of my detestation. This kind of dissimulation…is a...