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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

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Society In Every State

Thomas Paine

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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.

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Our Citizenship In The United States Is Our National Character. Our Citizenship In Any Particular State Is Only Our Local Distinction. By The Latter We Are Known At Home, By The Former To The World. Our Great Title Is Americans.

The Declaration Which Says That God Visits The Sins Of The Fathers Upon The Children Is Contrary To Every Principle Of Moral Justice.

Every Tory Is A Coward; For Servile, Slavish, Self-interested Fear Is The Foundation Of Toryism; And A Man Under Such Influence, Though He May Be Cruel, Never Can Be Brave.

All The Tales Of Miracles, With Which The Old And New Testament Are Filled, Are Fit Only For Impostors To Preach And Fools To Believe.

What Is It The Bible Teaches Us? - Raping, Cruelty, And Murder. What Is It The New Testament Teaches Us? - To Believe That The Almighty Committed Debauchery With A Woman Engaged To Be Married, And The Belief Of This Debauchery Is Called Faith.

...it Would Be More Consistent That We Call [the Bible] The Work Of A Demon Than The Word Of God. It Is A History Of Wickedness That Has Served To Corrupt And Brutalize Mankind.

My Country Is The World, And My Religion Is To Do Good.

Of All The Systems Of Religion That Ever Were Invented, There Is No More Derogatory To The Almighty, More Unedifiying To Man, More Repugnant To Reason, And More Contradictory To Itself Than This Thing Called Christianity.

The Representative System Of Government Is Calculated To Produce The Wisest Laws, By Collecting Wisdom Where It Can Be Found.

The Graceful Pride Of Truth Knows No Extremes, And Preserves, In Every Latitude Of Life, The Right-angled Character Of Man.

It Is For The Good Of Nations, And Not For The Emolument Or Aggrandizement Of Particular Individuals, That Government Ought To Be Established, And That Mankind Are At The Expense Of Supporting It. The Defects Of Every Government And Constitution Both As To Principle And Form, Must, On A Parity Of Reasoning, Be As Open To Discussion As The Defects Of A Law, And It Is A Duty Which Every Man Owes To Society To Point Them Out.

A Little Matter Will Move A Party, But It Must Be Something Great That Moves A Nation.

Government Is A Necessary Evil

The Continual Whine Of Lamenting The Burden Of Taxes, However Successfully It May Be Practiced In Mixed Governments, Is Inconsistent With The Sense And Spirit Of A Republic. If Taxes Are Necessary, They Are Of Course Advantageous, But If They Require An Apology, The Apology Itself Implies An Impeachment. Why, Then, Is Man Imposed Upon, Or Why Does He Impose Upon Himself?

Civilization, Or That Which Is So Called, Has Operated Two Ways To Make One Part Of Society More Affluent And The Other Part More Wretched Than Would Have Been The Lot Of Either In A Natural State.

Public Credit Is Suspicion Asleep.

We Feel Something Like Respect For Consistency Even In Error. We Lament The Virtue That Is Debauched Into A Vice; But The Vice That Affects A Virtue Becomes The More Detestable.

The More We Bestow The Richer We Become.

How Necessary It Is At All Times To Watch Against The Attempted Encroachment Of Power, And To Prevent Its Running To Excess.

Titles Are But Nicknames, And Every Nickname Is A Title. The Thing Is Perfectly Harmless In Itself, But It Marks A Sort Of Foppery In The Human Character, Which Degrades It.

On This Question Of War, Three Things Are To Be Considered. First, The Right Of Declaring It: Secondly, The Expense Of Supporting It: Thirdly, The Mode Of Conducting It After It Is Declared.

Those Who Expect To Reap The Blessings Of Freedom Must, Like Men, Undergo The Fatigue Of Supporting It.

A Long Habit Of Not Thinking A Thing Wrong Gives It A Superficial Appearance Of Being Right.

And As A Man, Who Is Attached To A Prostitute, Is Unfitted To Choose Or Judge Of A Wife, So Any Prepossession In Favour Of A Rotten Constitution Of Government Will Disable Us From Discerning A Good One.

Customs Will Often Outlive The Remembrance Of Their Origin.

Positive Atheism

Compassion, The Fairest Associate Of The Heart.

Government, Even In Its Best State, Is But A Necessary Evil; In Its Worst State, An Intolerable One.

The Instant Formal Government Is Abolished, Society Begins To Act. A General Association Takes Place, And Common Interest Produces Common Security.

Wrong Cannot Have A Legal Descendant.

Men Who Are Sincere In Defending Their Freedom, Will Always Feel Concern At Every Circumstance Which Seems To Make Against Them; It Is The Natural And Honest Consequence Of All Affectionate Attachments, And The Want Of It Is A Vice. But The Dejection Lasts Only For A Moment; They Soon Rise Out Of It With Additional Vigor; The Glow Of Hope, Courage And Fortitude, Will, In A Little Time, Supply The Place Of Every Inferior Passion, And Kindle The Whole Heart Into Heroism.

The Artificial Noble Shrinks Into A Dwarf Before The Noble Of Nature; And In The Few Instances (for There Are Some In All Countries) In Whom Nature, As By A Miracle, Has Survived In Aristocracy, Those Men Despise It.

A Bad Cause Will Ever Be Supported By Bad Means And Bad Men.

The Bible: A History Of Wickedness That Has Served To Corrupt And Brutalise Mankind.

But Such Is The Irresistable Nature Of Truth, That All It Asks, And All It Wants Is The Liberty Of Appearing.

The Error Of Those Who Reason By Precedents Drawn From Antiquity, Respecting The Rights Of Man, Is That They Do Not Go Far Enough Into Antiquity.

We Have It In Our Power To Begin The World Over Again.

Government Ought To Be As Much Open To Improvement As Anything Which Appertains To Man, Instead Of Which It Has Been Monopolized From Age To Age, By The Most Ignorant And Vicious Of The Human Race. Need We Any Other Proof Of Their Wretched Management, Than The Excess Of Debts And Taxes With Which Every Nation Groans, And The Quarrels Into Which They Have Precipitated The World?"

It Is Always To Be Taken For Granted, That Those Who Oppose An Equality Of Rights Never Mean The Exclusion Should Take Place On Themselves.

When I Contemplate The Natural Dignity Of Man; When I Feel (for Nature Has Not Been Kind Enough To Me To Blunt My Feelings) For The Honor And Happiness Of Its Character, I Become Irritated At The Attempt To Govern Mankind By Force And Fraud, As If They Were All Knaves And Fools, And Can Scarcely Avoid Disgust At Those Who Are Thus Imposed Upon.

I Believe In One God, And No More; And I Hope For Happiness Beyond This Life. I Believe In The Equality Of Humans; And I Believe That Religious Duties Consist In Doing Justice, Loving Mercy, And Endeavoring To Make Our Fellow Creatures Happy.

The Vatican Is A Dagger In The Heart Of Italy.

A Body Of Men Holding Themselves Accountable To Nobody Ought Not To Be Trusted By Anybody.

A Man Will Pass Better Through The World With A Thousand Open Errors Upon His Back Than In Being Detected In One Sly Falsehood. When One Is Detected, A Thousand Are Suspected.

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.

It Is Necessary To The Happiness Of Man That He Be Mentally Faithful To Himself.

Whatever Is My Right As A Man Is Also The Right Of Another; And It Becomes My Duty To Guarantee As Well As To Possess.

I Would Give Worlds, If I Had Them, If The Age Of Reason Had Never Been Published. O Lord, Help! Stay With Me! It Is Hell To Be Left Alone.

The Real Man Smiles In Trouble, Gathers Strength From Distress, And Grows Brave By Reflection.

Some People Can Be Reasoned Into Sense, And Others Must Be Shocked Into It.

If There Must Be Trouble, Let It Be In My Day, That My Child May Have Peace.

There Exists In Man A Mass Of Sense Lying In A Dormant State, And Which, Unless Something Excites It To Action, Will Descend With Him, In That Condition,to The Grave.

Civil Rights Are Those Which Appertain To Man In Right Of His Being A Member Of Society. Every Civil Right Has For Its Foundation Some Natural Right Pre-existing In The Individual, But To The Enjoyment Of Which His Individual Power Is Not, In All Cases, Sufficiently Competent. Of This Kind Are All Those Which Relate To Security And Protection.

Individual Power

Taxes Were Not Raised To Carry On Wars, But That Wars Were Raised To Carry On Taxes.

Now Is The Seedtime Of Continental Union, Faith And Honor. The Least Fracture Now, Will Be Like A Name Engraved With The Point Of A Pin On The Tender Rind Of A Young Oak; The Wound Would Enlarge With The Tree, And Posterity Read In It Full Grown Characters.

Thus Commerce, Though In Itself A Moral Nullity, Has Had A Considerable Influence In Tempering The Human Mind....he Trades With The Same Countries ...(that He) Would Have Gone To War With.

In Deism Our Reason And Our Belief Become Happily United. The Wonderful Structure Of The Universe, And Everything We Behold In The System Of The Creation, Prove To Us, Far Better Than Books Can Do, The Existence Of A God, And At The Same Time Proclaim His Attributes.

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 Inquiring Into, And Whether They Are The Means Of Happiness Or Of Misery To Mankind.

For The Fate Of Charles The First, Hath Only Made Kings More Subtle — Not More Just.

Had The News Of Salvation By Jesus Christ Been Inscribed On The Face Of The Sun And The Moon, In Characters That All Nations Would Have Understood, The Whole Earth Had Known It In Twenty-four Hours, And All Nations Would Have Believed It; Whereas, Though It Is Now Almost Two Thousand Years Since, As They Tell Us, Christ Came Upon Earth, Not A Twentieth Part Of The People Of The Earth Know Anything Of It, And Among Those Who Do, The Wiser Part Do Not Believe It.

Virtue Is Not Hereditary.

Now, Which Am I To Believe, A Book That Any Impostor Might Make And Call The Word Of God, Or The Creation Itself Which None But An Almighty Power Could Make? For The Bible Says One Thing; And The Creation Says The Contrary. The Bible Represents God With All The Passions Of A Mortal, And The Creation Proclaims Him With All The Attributes Of A God.

A Constitution Defines And Limits The Powers Of The Government It Creates. It Therefore Follows, As A Natural And Also A Logical Result, That The Governmental Exercise Of Any Power Not Authorized By The Constitution Is An Assumed Power, And Therefore Illegal.

It Is The Object Only Of War That Makes It Honorable.

He Who Dares Not Offend Cannot Be Honest.

If Those To Whom Power Is Delegated Do Well, They Will Be Respected; If Not, They Will Be Despised.

The Story Of Jesus Christ Appearing After He Was Dead Is The Story Of An Apparition, Such As Timid Imaginations Can Always Create In Vision, And Credulity Believe. Stories Of This Kind Had Been Told Of The Assassination Of Julius Caesar.

To Argue With A Person Who Has Renounced The Use Of Reason Is Like Administering Medicine To The Dead.

We Repose An Unwise Confidence In Any Government, Or In Any Men, When We Invest Them Officially With Too Much, Or An Unnecessary Quantity Of, Discretionary Power.

A Share In Two Revolutions Is Living To Some Purpose.

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.

Change Of Ministers Amounts To Nothing. One Goes Out, Another Comes In, And Still The Same Measures, Vices, And Extravagances Are Pursued. It Signifies Not Who Is Minister. The Defect Lies In The System. The Foundation And Superstructure Of The Government Is Bad. Prop It As You Please, It Continually Sinks And Ever Will.

I Die In Perfect Composure And Resignation To The Will Of My Creator, God.

It Is, I Believe, Impossible To Find In Any Story Upon Record So Many And Such Glaring Absurdities, Contradictions, And Falsehoods, As Are In The Books [the Gospels Of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John]. They Are More Numerous And Striking Than I Had Any Expectation Of Finding, When I Began This Examination.

The Whole Religious Complexion Of The Modern World Is Due To The Absence From Jerusalem Of A Lunatic Asylum.

Titles Are But Nicknames, And Every Nickname Is A Title.

No Falsehood Is So Fatal As That Which Is Made An Article Of Faith.

Could The Straggling Thoughts Of Individuals Be Collected, They Would Frequently Form Materials For Wise And Able Men To Improve Into Useful Matter.

The Aristocracy Are Not The Farmers Who Work The Land, And Raise The Produce, But Are The Mere Consumers Of The Rent; And When Compared With The Active World, Are The Drones, A Seraglio Of Males, Who Neither Collect The Honey Nor Form The Hive, But Exist Only For Lazy Enjoyment.

In The Following Pages I Offer Nothing More Than Simple Facts, Plain Arguments, And Common Sense; And Have No Other Preliminaries To Settle With The Reader, Than That He Will Divest Himself Of Prejudice And Repossession, And Suffer His Reason And Feelings To Determine For Themselves; And That He Will Put On, Or Rather That He Will Not Put Off, The True Character Of Man, And Generously Enlarge His View Beyond The Present Day.

The Right Of Voting For Representatives Is The Primary Right By Which Other Rights Are Protected. To Take Away This Right Is To Reduce A Man To Slavery, For Slavery Consists In Being Subject To The Will Of Another, And He That Has Not A Vote In The Election Of Representatives Is In This Case.

From The East To The West Blow The Trumpet To Arms! Through The Land Let The Sound Of It Flee; Let The Far And The Near All Unite, With A Cheer, In Defense Of Our Liberty Tree.

The Moral Duty Of Man Consists Of Imitating The Moral Goodness And Beneficence Of God, Manifested In The Creation Towards All His Creatures. Everything Of Persecution And Revenge Between Man And Man, And Everything Of Cruelty To Animals Is A Violation Of Moral Duty

Nothing, They Say Is More Certain Than Death, And Nothing More Uncertain Than The Time Of Dying

Natural Rights Are Those Which Always Appertain To Man In Right Of His Existence. Of This Kind Are All The Intellectual Rights, Or Rights Of The Mind, And Also All Those Rights Of Acting As An Individual For His Own Comfort And Happiness, Which Are Not Injurious To The Rights Of Others.

Youth Is The Seed Time Of Good Habits, As Well In Nations As In Individuals.

As To Religion, I Hold It To Be The Indispensable Duty Of All Government To Protect All Conscientious Professors Thereof, And I Know Of No Other Business Which Government Hath To Do Therewith.

Of All The Systems Of Religion That Ever Were Invented, There Is No More Derogatory To The Almighty, More Unedifying To Man, More Repugnant To Reason, And More Contradictory To Itself Than This Thing Called Christianity. Too Absurd For Belief, Too Impossible To Convince, And Too Inconsistent For Practice, It Renders The Heart Torpid Or Produces Only Atheists Or Fanatics. As An Engine Of Power, It Serves The Purpose Of Despotism, And As A Means Of Wealth, The Avarice Of Priests, But So Far As Respects The Good Of Man In General It Leads To Nothing Here Or Hereafter.

We Fight Not To Enslave, But To Set A Country Free, And To Make Room Upon The Earth For Honest Men To Live In.

Each Of Those Churches Shows Certain Books, Which They Call Revelation, Or The Word Of God. The Jews Say That Their Word Of God Was Given By God To Moses Face To Face; The Christians Say, That Their Word Of God Came By Divine Inspiration; And The Turks Say, That Their Word Of God (the Koran) Was Brought By An Angel From Heaven. Each Of Those Churches Accuses The Other Of Unbelief; And, For My Own Part, I Disbelieve Them All.

Great Part Of That Order Which Reigns Among Mankind Is Not The Effect Of Government. It Has Its Origin In The Principles Of Society And The Natural Constitution Of Man. It Existed Prior To Government, And Would Exist If The Formality Of Government Was Abolished. The Mutual Dependence And Reciprocal Interest Which Man Has Upon Man, And All The Parts Of Civilised Community Upon Each Other, Create That Great Chain Of Connection Which Holds It Together.

The Christian Religion Is Derogatory To The Creator In All Its Articles. It Puts The Creator In An Inferior Point Of View, And Places The Christian Devil Above Him. It Is He, According To The Absurd Story In Genesis, That Outwits The Creator In The Garden Eden, And Steals From Him His Favorite Creature, Man, And At Last Obliges Him To Beget A Son, And Put That Son To Death, To Get Man Back Again; And This The Priests Of The Christian Religion Call Redemption.

An Avidity To Punish Is Always Dangerous To Liberty. It Leads Men To Stretch, To Misinterpret, And To Misapply Even The Best Of Laws.

Panics, In Some Cases, Have Their Uses; They Produce As Much Good As Hurt. Their Duration Is Always Short; The Mind Soon Grows Through Them And Acquires A Firmer Habit Than Before. But Their Peculiar Advantage Is, That They Are The Touchstone Of Sincerity And Hypocrisy, And Bring Things And Men To Light, Which Might Have Lain Forever Undiscovered.

Character Is Much Easier Kept Than Recovered.

The Sun Never Shined On A Cause Of Greater Worth.

Oppression Is Often The Consequence, But Seldom Or Never The Means Of Riches; And Tho' Avarice Will Preserve A Man From Being Necessitously Poor, It Generally Makes Him Too Timorous To Be Wealthy.

The World Is My Country, All Mankind Are My Brethren, And To Do Good Is My Religion.

It Is A Fraud Of The Christian System To Call The Sciences Human Invention; It Is Only The Application Of Them That Is Human.

I Would Not Dare So Dishonor My Creator's Name By Attaching It To This Filthy Book.

Christianity Is The Strangest Religion Ever Set Up, For It Committed A Murder Upon Jesus In Order To Redeem Mankind From The Sin Of Eating An Apple.

The Evil That Has Resulted From The Error Of The Schools, In Teaching Natural Philosophy As An Accomplishment Only, Has Been That Of Generating In The Pupils A Species Of Atheism. Instead Of Looking Through The Works Of Creation To The Creator Himself, They Stop Short, And Employ The Knowledge They Acquire To Create Doubts Of His Existence. They Labour With Studied Ingenuity To Ascribe Every Thing They Behold To Innate Properties Of Matter, And Jump Over All The Rest By Saying, That Matter Is Eternal.

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 Interests, And When They Succeed To The Government Are Frequently The Most Ignorant And Unfit Of Any Throughout The Dominions.

The Obscene And Vulgar Stories In The Bible Are As Repugnant To Our Ideas Of The Purity Of A Divine Being, As The Horrid Cruelties And Murders It Ascribes To Him Are Repugnant To Our Ideas Of His Justice.

Practical Religion Consists In Doing Good: And The Only Way Of Serving God Is That Of Endeavoring To Make His Creation Happy. All Preaching That Has Not This For Its Object Is Nonsense And Hypocrisy.

War Involves In Its Progress Such A Train Of Unforeseen Circumstances That No Human Wisdom Can Calculate The End; It Has But One Thing Certain, And That Is To Increase Taxes.

We Do Not Admit The Authority Of The Church With Respect To Its Pretended Infallibility, Its Manufactured Miracles, Its Setting Itself Up To Forgive Sins. It Was By Propagating That Belief And Supporting It With Fire That She Kept Up Her Temporal Power.

The Abilities Of Man Must Fall Short On One Side Or The Other, Like Too Scanty A Blanket When You Are Abed. If You Pull It Upon Your Shoulders, Your Feet Are Left Bare; If You Thrust It Down To Your Feet, Your Shoulders Are Uncovered.

Governments Arise Either Out Of The People Or Over The People.

Of More Worth Is One Honest Man To Society, And In The Sight Of God, Than All The Crowned Ruffians That Ever Lived.

Therefore We Say That A Lying Spirit Has Been In The Mouth Of The Writers Of The Books Of The Bible.

The Story Of The Whale Swallowing Jonah, Though A Whale Is Large Enough To Do It, Borders Greatly On The Marvelous; But It Would Have Approached Nearer To The Idea Of A Miracle If Jonah Had Swallowed The Whale.

I Know Not Whether Taxes Are Raised To Fight Wars, Or Wars Are Fought In Order To Raise Taxes.

You Cannot Undermine Police Authority And Then Complain About Rising Crime.

I Have Never Made It A Consideration Whether The Subject Was Popular Or Unpopular, But Whether It Was Right Or Wrong; For That Which Is Right Will Become Popular, And That Which Is Wrong, Though By Mistake It May Obtain The Cry Or Fashion Of The Day, Will Soon Lose The Power Of Delusion, And Sink Into Disesteem.

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.

A Government Of Our Own Is Our Natural Right

Public Money Ought To Be Touched With The Most Scrupulous Consciousness Of Honor.

The Cunning Of The Fox Is As Murderous As The Violence Of The Wolf.

A Constitution Is Not The Act Of A Government, But Of A People Constituting A Government, And A Government Without A Constitution Is A Power Without Right.

A World Of Little Cares Is Continually Arising, Which Busy Or Affluent Life Knows Nothing Of, To Open The First Door To Distress. Hunger Is Not Among The Postponable Wants; And A Day, Even A Few Hours, In Such A Condition Is Often The Crisis Of A Life Of Ruin.

He That Rebels Against Reason Is A Real Rebel, But He That In Defence Of Reason Rebels Against Tyranny Has A Better Title To Defender Of The Faith, Than George The Third.

Reason Obeys Itself; And Ignorance Submits To Whatever Is Dictated To It.

The Art Of Publicity Is A Black Art; But It Has Come To Stay, And Every Year Adds To Its Potency.

There Are A Set Of Men Who Go About Making Purchases Upon Credit, And Buying Estates They Have Not Wherewithal To Pay For; And Having Done This, Their Next Step Is To Fill The Newspapers With Paragraphs Of The Scarcity Of Money And The Necessity Of A Paper Emission, Then To Have A Legal Tender Under The Pretense Of Supporting Its Credit, And When Out, To Depreciate It As Fast As They Can, Get A Deal Of It For A Little Price, And Cheat Their Creditors; And This Is The Concise History Of Paper Money Schemes.

I Consider The War Of America Against Britain As The Country's War, The Public's War, Or The War Of The People In Their Own Behalf, For The Security Of Their Natural Rights, And The Protection Of Their Own Property.

Every Proprietor Owes To The Community A Ground-rent For The Land Which He Holds.

The Most Extraordinary Of All The Things Called Miracles, Related In The New Testament, Is That Of The Devil Flying Away With Jesus Christ, And Carrying Him To The Top Of A High Mountain; And To The Top Of The Highest Pinnacle Of The Temple, And Showing Him And Promising To Him All The Kingdoms Of The World . How Happened It That He Did Not Discover America? Or Is It Only With Kingdoms That His Sooty Highness Has Any Interest.

Arms Discourage And Keep The Invader And Plunderer In Awe, And Preserve Order In The World As Well As Property... Horrid Mischief Would Ensue Were The Law-abiding Deprived Of The Use Of Them.

One Would Think That A System Loaded With Such Gross And Vulgar Absurdities As Scripture Religion Is Could Never Have Obtained Credit; Yet We Have Seen What Priestcraft And Fanaticism Can Do, And Credulity Believe.

Politics And Self-interest Have Been So Uniformly Connected, That The World, From Being So Often Deceived, Has A Right To Be Suspicious Of Public Characters.

The Mind Once Enlightened Cannot Again Become Dark.

To Believe That God Created A Plurality Of Worlds, At Least As Numerous As What We Call Stars, Renders The Christian Faith At Once Little And Ridiculous; And Scatters It In The Mind Like Feathers In The Air.

The Guilt Of A Government Is The Crime Of A Whole Country.

America Could Carry On A Two Years' War By The Confiscation Of The Property Of Disaffected Persons, And Be Made Happy By Their Expulsion. Say Not That This Is Revenge, Call It Rather The Soft Resentment Of A Suffering People, Who, Having No Object In View But The Good Of All, Have Staked Their Own All Upon A Seemingly Doubtful Event. Yet It Is Folly To Argue Against Determined Hardness; Eloquence May Strike The Ear, And The Language Of Sorrow Draw Forth The Tear Of Compassion, But Nothing Can Reach The Heart That Is Steeled With Prejudice.

Those Words, Temperate And Moderate, Are Words Either Of Political Cowardice, Or Of Cunning, Or Seduction. A Thing, Moderately Good Is Not So Good As It Ought To Be. Moderation In Temper, Is Always A Virtue; But Moderation In Principle, Is A Species Of Vice.

Men Should Not Petition For Rights, But Take Them

There Is Something Absurd In Supposing A Continent To Be Perpetually Governed By An Island.

When An Objection Cannot Be Made Formidable, There Is Some Policy In Trying To Make It Frightful; And To Substitute The Yell And The War-whoop, In The Place Of Reason, Argument And Good Order.

All The Religions Known In The World Are Founded, So Far As They Relate To Man Or The Unity Of Man, As Being All Of One Degree. Whether In Heaven Or In Hell, Or In Whatever State Man May Be Supposed To Exist Hereafter, The Good And The Bad Are The Only Distinctions.

The United States Of America Will Sound As Pompously In The World Or In History As The Kingdom Of Great Britain.

It Is Often Said In The Bible That God Spake Unto Moses, But How Do You Know That God Spake Unto Moses? Because, You Will Say, The Bible Says So. The Koran Says, That God Spake Unto Mahomet, Do You Believe That Too? No. Why Not? Because, You Will Say, You Do Not Believe It; And So Because You Do, And Because You Don't Is All The Reason You Can Give For Believing Or Disbelieving Except That You Will Say That Mahomet Was An Impostor. And How Do You Know Moses Was Not An Impostor?

If Men Will Permit Themselves To Think, As Rational Beings Ought To Think, Nothing Can Appear More Ridiculous And Absurd, Exclusive Of All Moral Reflections, Than To Be At The Expence Of Building Navies, Filling Them With Men, And Then Hauling Them Into The Ocean, To Try Which Can Sink Each Other Fastester. Peace, Which Costs Nothing, Is Attended With Infintely More Advantage Than Any Victory With All Its Expence. But This, Though It Best Answers The Purpose Of Nations, Does Not That Of Court Governments, Whose Habited Policy Is Pretence For Taxation, Places, And Offices.

As To The Christian System Of Faith, It Appears To Me As A Species Of Atheism — A Sort Of Religious Denial Of God. It Professes To Believe In A Man Rather Than In God. It Is A Compound Made Up Chiefly Of Manism With But Little Deism, And Is As Near To Atheism As Twilight Is To Darkness. It Introduces Between Man And His Maker An Opaque Body, Which It Calls A Redeemer, As The Moon Introduces Her Opaque Self Between The Earth And The Sun, And It Produces By This Means A Religious, Or An Irreligious, Eclipse Of Light. It Has Put The Whole Orbit Of Reason Into Shade.

It Appears To General Observation, That Revolutions Create Genius And Talents; But Those Events Do No More Than Bring Them Forward. There Is Existing In Man, A Mass Of Sense Lying In A Dormant State, And Which, Unless Something Excites It To Action, Will Descend With Him, In That Condition, To The Grave. As It Is To The Advantage Of Society That The Whole Of Its Faculties Should Be Employed, The Construction Of Government Ought To Be Such As To Bring Forward, By A Quiet And Regular Operation, All That Extent Of Capacity Which Never Fails To Appear In Revolutions.

These Are The Times That Try Men's Souls. The Summer Soldier And The Sunshine Patriot Will, In This Crisis, Shrink From The Service Of His Country; But He That Stands It Now, Deserves The Love And Thanks Of Man And Woman.

Government Without A Constitution, Is A Power Without A Right.

There Is Something In Corruption Which, Like A Jaundiced Eye, Transfers The Color Of Itself To The Object It Looks Upon, And Sees Everything Stained And Impure.

An Army Of Principles Will Penetrate Where An Army Of Soldiers Cannot.

That Which Is Now Called Natural Philosophy, Embracing The Whole Circle Of Science, Of Which Astronomy Occupies The Chief Place, Is The Study Of The Works Of God, And Of The Power And Wisdom Of God In His Works, And Is The True Theology.

Is It Because You Are Sunk In The Cruelty Of Superstition, Or Feel No Interest In The Honor Of Your Creator, That You Listen To The Horrid Tales Of The Bible, Or Hear Them With Callous Indifference?

He Is Not Affected By The Reality Of Distress Touching His Heart, But By The Showy Resemblance Of It Striking His Imagination. He Pities The Plumage, But Forgets The Dying Bird.

Our Greatest Enemies, The Ones We Must Fight Most Often, Are Within.

But Though Every Created Thing Is, In This Sense, A Mystery, The Word Mystery Cannot Be Applied To Moral Truth, Any More Than Obscurity Can Be Applied To Light. ... Mystery Is The Antagonist Of Truth. It Is A Fog Of Human Invention, That Obscures Truth, And Represents It In Distortion. Truth Never Envelops Itself In Mystery, And The Mystery In Which It Is At Any Time Enveloped Is The Work Of Its Antagonist, And Never Of Itself.

To Establish Any Mode To Abolish War, However Advantageous It Might Be To Nations, Would Be To Take From Such Government The Most Lucrative Of Its Branches.

Beware The Greedy Hand Of Government Thrusting Itself Into Every Corner And Crevice Of Industry.

It Is Not A God, Just And Good, But A Devil, Under The Name Of God, That The Bible Describes.

There Never Did, There Never Will, And There Never Can Exist A Parliament, Or Any Description Of Men, Or Any Generation Of Men, In Any Country, Possessed Of The Right Or The Power Of Binding And Controlling Posterity To The 'end Of Time,' Or Of Commanding For Ever How The World Shall Be Governed, Or Who Shall Govern It. Every Age And Generation Must Be As Free To Act For Itself, In All Cases, As The Ages And Generations Which Preceded It.

The Church Was Resolved To Have A New Testament, And As, After The Lapse Of More Than Three Hundred Years, No Handwriting Could Be Proved Or Disproved, The Church, Which Like Former Impostors Had Then Gotten Possession Of The State, Had Everything Its Own Way. It Invented Creeds, Such As That Called The Apostle's Creed, The Nicean Creed, The Athanasian Creed, And Out Of The Loads Of Rubbish That Were Presented It Voted Four To Be Gospels, And Others To Be Epistles, As We Now Find Them Arranged.

The Prejudice Of Unfounded Belief Often Degenerates Into The Prejudice Of Custom, And Becomes At Last Rank Hypocrisy. When Men, From Custom Or Fashion Or Any Worldly Motive, Profess Or Pretend To Believe What They Do Not Believe, Nor Can Give Any Reason For Believing, They Unship The Helm Of Their Morality, And Being No Longer Honest To Their Own Minds They Feel No Moral Difficulty In Being Unjust To Others.

The Word Of God Is The Creation We Behold: And It Is In This Word, Which No Human Invention Can Counterfeit Or Alter, That God Speaketh Universally To Man.

...the Bible Is Such A Book Of Lies And Contradictions There Is No Knowing Which Part To Believe Or Whether Any.

But There Are Times When Men Have Serious Thoughts, And It Is At Such Times, When They Begin To Think, That They Begin To Doubt The Truth Of The Christian Religion; And Well They May, For It Is Too Fanciful And Too Full Of Conjecture, Inconsistency, Improbability And Irrationality, To Afford Consolation To The Thoughtful Man. His Reason Revolts Against His Creed. He Sees That None Of Its Articles Are Proved, Or Can Be Proved.

In A Chariot Of Light From The Region Of The Day, The Goddess Of Liberty Came. She Brought In Her Hand As A Pledge Of Her Love, The Plant She Named Liberty Tree.

The Balance Of Power Is The Scale Of Peace.

Second Amendment

The More Men Have To Lose, The Less Willing Are They To Venture.

Man Cannot Make, Or Invent, Or Contrive Principles; He Can Only Discover Them; And He Ought To Look Through The Discovery To The Author.

Every National Church Or Religion Has Established Itself By Pretending Some Special Mission From God, Communicated To Certain Individuals. The Jews Have Their Moses; The Christians Their Jesus Christ, Their Apostles And Saints; And The Turks Their Mahomet; As If The Way To God Was Not Open To Every Man Alike.

Government, Like Dress, Is The Badge Of Lost Innocence; The Palaces Of Kings Are Built On The Ruins Of The Bowers Of Paradise.

Let It Be Told To The Future World, That In The Depth Of Winter, When Nothing But Hope And Virtue Could Survive, That The City And The Country, Alarmed At One Common Danger, Came Forth To Meet And To Repulse It. Say Not That Thousands Are Gone, Turn Out Your Tens Of Thousands; Throw Not The Burden Of The Day Upon Providence, But "show Your Faith By Your Works," That God May Bless You. It Matters Not Where You Live, Or What Rank Of Life You Hold, The Evil Or The Blessing Will Reach You All.

In A General View, There Are Few Conquests That Repay The Charge Of Making Them, And Mankind Are Pretty Well Convinced That It Can Never Be Worth Their While To Go To War For Profit's Sake. If They Are Made War Upon, Their Country Invaded, Or Their Existence At Stake, It Is Their Duty To Defend And Preserve Themselves, But In Every Other Light, And From Every Other Cause, Is War Inglorious And Detestable.

Science Is The True Theology.

The Continually Progressive Change To Which The Meaning Of Words Is Subject, The Want Of A Universal Language Which Renders Translation Necessary, The Errors To Which Translations Are Again Subject, The Mistakes Of Copyists And Printers, Together With The Possibility Of Willful Alteration, Are Themselves Evidences That Human Language, Whether In Speech Or Print, Cannot Be The Vehicle Of The Word Of God.

It Is The Duty Of Every True Deist To Vindicate The Moral Justice Of God Against The Evils Of The Bible.

It Is The Duty Of Every Man, As Far As His Ability Extends, To Detect And Expose Delusion And Error.

Calumny Is A Vice Of Curious Constitution; Trying To Kill It Keeps It Alive; Leave It To Itself And It Will Die A Natural Death.

The Greatest Tyrannies Are Always Perpetuated In The Name Of The Noblest Causes.

The People Of America Are A People Of Property; Almost Every Man Is A Freeholder.

But In Addition To All The Moral Evidence Against The Bible, I Will, In The Progress Of This Work, Produce Such Other Evidence As Even A Priest Cannot Deny; And Show, From That Evidence, That The Bible Is Not Entitled To Credit, As Being The Word Of God.

... In Free Countries The Law Ought To Be King; And There Ought To Be No Other.

When Men Yield Up The Privilege Of Thinking, The Last Shadow Of Liberty Quits The Horizon.

The Balance Of Power Is The Scale Of Peace. The Same Balance Would Be Preserved Were All The World Not Destitute Of Arms, For All Would Be Alike; But Since Some Will Not, Others Dare Not Lay Them Aside ... Horrid Mischief Would Ensue Were One Half The World Deprived Of The Use Of Them ... The Weak Will Become Prey To The Strong.

Arms, Like Laws, Discourage And Keep The Invader And Plunderer In Awe And Preserve Order.

Where There Are No Distinctions There Can Be No Superiority; Perfect Equality Affords No Temptation.

Before Anything Can Be Reasoned Upon To A Conclusion, Certain Facts, Principles, Or Data, To Reason From, Must Be Established, Admitted, Or Denied.

It Is The Fable Of Jesus Christ, As Told In The New Testament, And The Wild And Visionary Doctrine Raised Thereon, Against Which I Contend. The Story, Taking It As It Is Told, Is Blasphemously Obscene.

A Nation Under A Well Regulated Government, Should Permit None To Remain Uninstructed. It Is Monarchical And Aristocratical Government Only That Requires Ignorance For Its Support.

It Matters Not Where You Live, Or What Rank Of Life You Hold, The Evil Or The Blessing Will Reach You All.

A Government Of Our Own Is Our Natural Right; And When A Man Seriously Reflects On The Precariousness Of Human Affairs, He Will Become Convinced, That It Is Infinitely Wiser And Safer, To Form A Constitution Of Our Own In A Cool Deliberate Manner, While We Have It In Our Power, Than To Trust Such An Interesting Event To Time And Chance.

Not All The Treasures Of The World, So Far As I Believe, Could Have Induced Me To Support An Offensive War, For I Think It Murder; But If A Thief Breaks Into My House, Burns And Destroys My Property, And Kills Or Threatens To Kill Me, Or Those That Are In It, And To "bind Me In All Cases Whatsoever" To His Absolute Will, Am I To Suffer It?

The Almighty Implanted In Us These Inextinguishable Feelings For Good And Wise Purposes. They Are The Guardians Of His Image In Our Heart. They Distinguish Us From The Herd Of Common Animals.

The Countries The Most Famous And The Most Respected Of Antiquity Are Those Which Distinguished Themselves By Promoting And Patronizing Science, And On The Contrary Those Which Neglected Or Discouraged It Are Universally Denominated Rude And Barbarous.

There Now Remain Only A Few Books, Which They Call Books Of The Lesser Prophets; And As I Have Already Shown That The Greater Are Impostors, It Would Be Cowardice To Disturb The Repose Of The Little Ones. Let Them Sleep, Then, In The Arms Of Their Nurses, The Priests, And Both Be Forgotten Together.

When Extraordinary Power And Extraordinary Pay Are Allotted To Any Individual In A Government, He Becomes The Center, Round Which Every Kind Of Corruption Generates And Forms.

The Times That Tried Men's Souls Are Over-and The Greatest And Completest Revolution The World Ever Knew, Gloriously And Happily Accomplished.

These Are The Days That Try Man's Heart.

We Can Only Reason From What Is; We Can Reason On Actualities, But Not On Possibilities.

The Mere Man Of Pleasure Is Miserable In Old Age, And The Mere Drudge In Business Is But Little Better, Whereas, Natural Philosophy, Mathematical And Mechanical Science, Are A Continual Source Of Tranquil Pleasure, And In Spite Of The Gloomy Dogmas Of Priests And Of Superstition, The Study Of These Things Is The True Theology; It Teaches Man To Know And Admire The Creator, For The Principles Of Science Are In The Creation, And Are Unchangeable And Of Divine Origin.

Ignorance Is Of A Peculiar Nature; Once Dispelled, It Is Impossible To Reestablish It. It Is Not Originally A Thing Of Itself, But Is Only The Absence Of Knowledge; And Though Man May Be Kept Ignorant, He Cannot Be Made Ignorant.

What Is Called A Republic, Is Not Any Particular Form Of Government ... It Is Naturally Opposed To The Word Monarchy, Which Means Arbitrary Power.

I Disbelieve All Holy Men And Holy Books.

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