But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
Thomas PaineIf any generation of men ever possessed the right of dictating the mode by which the world should be governed for ever, it was the first generation that existed; and if that generation did it not, no succeeding generation can show any authority for doing it, nor can set any up.
Thomas PaineEvery religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
Thomas PaineInfidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, 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.
Thomas Paine