Thomas Paine quotes

1737–1809 · Thetford, England

• Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.

• O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is over-run with oppression.

• Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her.—Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

• We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

• The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.

• 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.