Tao Te Ching
Portrait by Laurent Dabos
Thomas Paine
1737 – 1809 CE
Fired from his government post in England because of his efforts for the working class and running to escape debtor’s prison, Paine brought a letter of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin to the new world and quickly established himself as a voice for freedom, liberty, women’s rights, prison reform, Newtonian science, and anti-slavery efforts. From a poor family growing up during a time when thousands of small farmers were becoming serf-like factory workers and the gap between super rich and super poor was becoming extreme; he educated himself, became a Founding Father, one of the most essential influences on the Revolutionary War, gave the United States of America it’s name, and wrote the rough draft that Jefferson used to craft the Declaration of Independence. John Adams said that, “Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain.” The first to lobby for a Social Security system, his influence extended from American to England, France, South America, and all countries seeking freedom, social justice, and moral equality.
Lineages
American (USA) British Politicians
Eras
Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE)Unlisted Sources
Common Sense, 1776
original draft Declaration of Independence
The Age of Reason
The American Crisis, 1776
The Rights of Man, 1792
Quotes by Thomas Paine (23 quotes)
“The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally paid to the sun”
Comments: Click to comment
“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. 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.”
Comments: Click to comment
“The Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world, that the fall of man, the account of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of salvation, by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions, dishonorable to the wisdom and power of the Almighty”
Comments: Click to comment
“We hold these truths to be Self evident: that all Men are created equal and independent… [with] Rights inherent and unalienable… the preservation of Life, and Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness; that to Secure these ends, Governments are instituted”
from original draft Declaration of Independence
Comments: Click to comment
“The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.”
from Common Sense, 1776
Comments: Click to comment
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness.”
from Common Sense, 1776
Comments: Click to comment
“These are the times that try men's souls... Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”
from The American Crisis, 1776
Comments: Click to comment
“Moderation in temper is always a virtue, but moderation in principle is always a vice.”
from The Rights of Man, 1792
Comments: Click to comment
“That government is best which governs least... The more perfect civilization is, the less occasion has it for government, because the more does it regulate its own affairs”
from The Rights of Man, 1792
Chapters:
17. True Leaders
Comments: Click to comment
“Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.”
from The Age of Reason
Comments: Click to comment
“A man does not serve God when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve”
Comments: Click to comment
“The more perfect civilization is, the less occasion has it for government… government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worse state, an intolerable one.”
Chapters:
58. Goals Without Means
Comments: Click to comment
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.”
Comments: Click to comment
“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.”
Comments: Click to comment
“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”
Comments: Click to comment
“Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”
Comments: Click to comment
“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."”
Comments: Click to comment
“It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."”
Comments: Click to comment
“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”
from The Rights of Man, 1792
Comments: Click to comment
“Had Mr. Burke possessed talents similar to the author of 'On the Wealth of Nations, he would have comprehended all the parts which enter into, and, by assemblage, form a constitution.”
Comments: Click to comment
“But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.”
Comments: Click to comment
Quotes about Thomas Paine (4 quotes)
“An eloquent and reverent expression of the implications of this courage to doubt—a belief in religious liberty and the creator’s delight in the multiformity of men's minds—was offered by Thomas Paine who was a prophet and publicist of the American Revolution. But he was hardly a favorite of dogmatic theologians”
Comments: Click to comment
“At the time of his death, Tom Paine had accomplished more for human freedom, for the abolition of physical and mental slavery, and for the brotherhood of mankind, than any other American then living.”
Comments: Click to comment
“As I went out one morning to breathe the air around Tom Paine’s, I spied the fairest damsel that ever did walk in chains… I'm sorry, sir, he said to me, I’m sorry for what she's done”
Comments: Click to comment
“I have always regarded Paine as one of the greatest of all Americans. Never have we had a sounder intelligence in this republic ...it was a revelation to me to read that great thinker's views on political and theological subjects. Paine educated me. I remember, very vividly, the flash of enlightenment that shone from his writings. What a pity these works are not today the schoolbooks for all children! My interest was not satisfied by my first reading of his works. I went back to them time and again, just as I have done since my boyhood days.”
Comments: Click to comment
Comments (0)
Log in to comment.