Tom Paine Quotes & Sayings

Self-governance does not mean no one is responsible. It means everyone is. — Heather Marsh

Tom Paine generally took a critical stance when dealing with religion and the church, but in 1775, in an essay entitled, "Thoughts on Defensive War" he wrote as follows: "In the barbarous ages of the world, men in genernal had no liberty. the strong governed the weak a will; till the coming of Christ there was no sucht thing as political freedom in any part of the world... The Romans held the world in slavery and were themselves slaves of their emperors... Wherefore political as well as spiritual freedom is the gift of God through Christ — Edmund A. Opitz

I have been lately introduced to the famous Thomas Paine, and like him very well. He is vain beyond all belief, but he has reason to be vain, and for my part I forgive him. He has done wonders for the cause of liberty, both in America and Europe, and I believe him to be conscientiously an honest man. He converses extremely well; and I find him wittier in discourse than in his writings, where his humour is clumsy enough. — Wolfe Tone

Holy unanticipated occurrences! — Kate DiCamillo

Every flyer who ventures across oceans to distant lands is a potential explorer; in his or her breast burns the same fire that urged adventurers of old to set forth in their sailing-ships for foreign lands. — Jean Batten

Exclusion makes us suffer, inclusion makes us thrive. — E. O. Wilson

Also, an area that interests me - and it will probably take years to state what I mean - is the period of the rise of democracy, with Tom Paine, which is around the turn of the 18th century into the 19th. — Fiona Shaw

I never tire of reading Tom Paine. — Abraham Lincoln

We may note in passing, one peculiarity in regard to all the final resolutions taken by him in the matter; they had one strange characteristic: the more final they were, the more hideous and the more absurd they at once became in his eyes. In spite of all his agonising inward struggle, he never for a single instant all that time could believe in the carrying out of his plans. And, — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain. — John Adams

The left no longer stands for common sense, as it did in the days of Tom Paine. — Christopher Lasch

The neglected pioneer of one revolution, the honoured victim of another, brave to the point of folly, and as humane as he was brave, no man in his generation preached republican virtue in better English, nor lived it with a finer disregard of self.

{On American founding father and hero, Thomas Paine} — H.N. Brailsford

Tom Paine was a great American visionary. His book, Common Sense, sold a couple of hundred thousand copies in a population of four or five million. That means it was a best seller for years. People were thoughtful then. Hope is one thing. But you need to have hope with thought. — Studs Terkel

The only person I really believe in is me. — Debbie Harry

Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. Jesuswould absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Regretting the past does not prevent me from repeating it. — Mason Cooley

We are all bits and pieces of history and literature and international law, Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli or Christ, it's here. And the hour's late. And the war's begun. And we are out here, and the city is there, all wrapped up in its own coat of a thousand colors. — Ray Bradbury

People who say things like 'may all your dreams come true' should try living in one for five minutes. — Terry Pratchett

Fairytales do exist if you're brave enough and have just the right dash of badass in you to chase them down and fight like a warrior to live them out." -Blue — H.J. Bellus

I am a clothes maker, and that's all I am. I only want to talk about the making of the clothes. I don't feel the need to go out there and explain that. — Rei Kawakubo

I think Tom Paine is one of the greatest men that's ever lived. — Richard Attenborough

How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin had walked. — Burl Ives

Better to keep it in the old heads, where no one can see it or suspect it. We are all bits and pieces of history and literature and international law. Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli, or Christ, it's here. And the hour's late. And the war's begun. And we are out here, and the city is there, all wrapped up in its own coat of a thousand colors ... All we want to do is keep the knowledge we think we will need intact and safe. We're not out to incite or anger anyone yet. For if we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead, perhaps for good ... Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end. It's not pleasant, but then we're not in control, we're the odd minority crying in the wilderness. When the war's over, perhaps we can be of some use in the world. — Ray Bradbury

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, our lives are a mirror, reflection a must ... — Lynda Meyers

My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse. — John Quincy Adams