Thomas Paine - Common Sense (1776)

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Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.

Thomas Paine
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; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

Thomas Paine
When men yield up the exclusive privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine
Wherefore, since nothing but blows will do, for God's sake let us come to a final separation.

Thomas Paine
It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.

Thomas Paine
But where, say some, is the King of America? I'll tell you, friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Great Britain... so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America the law is king.

Thomas Paine
It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues.

Thomas Paine
Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.

Thomas Paine
Our present condition is, Legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; a constitution without a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect independence contending for dependence.

Thomas Paine
Wisdom degenerates in governments as governments increase in age.

Thomas Paine
The period of debate is closed. Arms, as a last resource, must decide the contest.

Thomas Paine
Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.

Thomas Paine
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.

Thomas Paine
But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.

Thomas Paine
A single legislature, on account of the superabundance of its power, and the uncontrolled rabidity of its execution, becomes as dangerous to the principles of liberty as that of a despotic monarch.

Thomas Paine
Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority; perfect equality affords no temptation.

Thomas Paine
Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.

Thomas Paine
Any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain, tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship, and against whom we have neither anger nor complaint.

Thomas Paine
In the early ages of the world, according to the Scripture chronology there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion.

Thomas Paine
One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion.

Thomas Paine
Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.

Thomas Paine
Hereditary succession has no claim. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his contemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.

Thomas Paine
It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradation we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.

Thomas Paine
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

Thomas Paine
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.

Thomas Paine