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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.
-Thomas Paine
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The Balance Of Power

Thomas Paine
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.
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Strong
Gun
Weak Will
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Suspicion Is The Companion Of Mean Souls, And The Bane Of All Good Society.
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People In General Know Not What Wickedness There Is In This Pretended Word Of God. Brought Up In Habits Of Superstition, They Take It For Granted That The Bible Is True, And That It Is Good; They Permit Themselves Not To Doubt Of It, And They Carry The Ideas They Form Of The Benevolence Of The Almighty To The Book Which They Have Been Taught To Believe Was Written By His Authority. Good Heavens! It Is Quite Another Thing; It Is A Book Of Lies, Wickedness, And Blasphemy.
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I Had Come To Realize The Importance Of The Nation, And Of Shared, Communal, Social Responsibility, To Be Held As Equally Important As Individual Concerns. The Elderly, The Widowed, Newly Married Couples, The Poor, The Unemployed, Disbanded Soldiers And Children, Who Would Be Required To Attend School, Must Be Provided For From State Funds. And All This Support Is Not The Nature Of Charity, But Of A Right.
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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.
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The Study Of Theology, As It Stands In The Christian Churches, Is The Study Of Nothing.
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Independence Is My Happiness, And I View Things As They Are, Without Regard To Place Or Person; My Country Is The World, And My Religion Is To Do Good.
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And As To You, Sir, Treacherous In Private Friendship And A Hypocrite In Public Life, The World Will Be Puzzled To Decide Whether You Are An Apostate Or An Impostor; Whether You Have Abandoned Good Principles, Or Whether You Ever Had Any.
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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.
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Science Is The True Theology.
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The Choicest Gift Of God To Man, The Gift Of Reason; And Having Endeavoured To Force Upon Himself The Belief Of A System Against Which Reason Revolts, He Ungratefully Calls It Human Reason; As If Man Could Give Reason To Himself.
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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.
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No Falsehood Is So Fatal As That Which Is Made An Article Of Faith.
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Better Fare Hard With Good Men Than Feast It With Bad.
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I Fear Not, I See Not Reason For Fear. In The End We Will Be The Victors. For Though At Times The Flame Of Liberty May Cease To Shine, The Ember Will Never Expire.
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And This Manner Of Speaking Of The Almighty, As One Would Speak Of A Man, Is Consistent With Nothing But The Stupidity Of The Bible.
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Government Without A Constitution, Is A Power Without A Right.
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The Graceful Pride Of Truth Knows No Extremes, And Preserves, In Every Latitude Of Life, The Right-angled Character Of Man.
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Religion Is A History Of Wickedness That Has Served To Corrupt And Brutalize Humankind; And, For My Part, I Sincerely Detest It As I Detest Everything That Is Cruel.
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Wrong Cannot Have A Legal Descendant.
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Government, Like Dress, Is The Badge Of Lost Innocence.
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A Government Of Our Own Is Our Natural Right
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Those Who Expect To Reap The Blessing Of Freedom Must Undertake To Support It.
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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.
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Uncritical Reverence For The Founding Fathers Was Less Ubiquitous While They Actually Lived. . . . "the Reign Of Terror That Raged In America During The Latter End Of The Washington Administration, And The Whole Of That Of Adams, Is Enveloped In Mystery To Me. That There Were Men In The Government Hostile To The Representative System, Was Once Their Toast, Though It Is Now Their Overthrow, And Therefore The Fact Is Established Against Them."
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One Good Schoolmaster Is Of More Use Than A Hundred Priests.
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Titles Do Not Count With Posterity.
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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.
Country
War
Mind
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Blessing
Evil
Where You Live
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.
Men
Mind
Looks
The Christian Religion Begins With A Dream And Ends With A Murder.
Christian
Dream
Religion
There Is Existing In Man, A Mass Of Sense Lying In A Dormant State. The Construction Of Government Ought To Be Such As To Bring Forward, By A Quiet And Regular Operation, All That Extent Of Capacity.
Lying
Men
Political
It Is The Object Only Of War That Makes It Honorable.
War
Honorable
Objects
The Stupid Texts Of The Bible - From Which, Be The Talents Of The Preacher What They May, Only Stupid Sermons Can Be Preached.
Bible
Stupid
May
The Real Man Smiles In Trouble, Gathers Strength From Distress, And Grows Brave By Reflection.
Inspirational
Positive
Strength
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.
Religious
Father
Fire
The World Is My Country, All Mankind Are My Brethren, And To Do Good Is My Religion.
Inspirational
Life
Wisdom
If Anything Had Or Could Have A Value Equal To Gold And Silver, It Would Require No Tender Law; And If It Had Not That Value It Ought Not To Have Such A Law; And, Therefore, All Tender Laws Are Tyrannical And Unjust And Calculated To Support Fraud And Oppression.
Law
Support
Gold
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.
Pain
Men
Rights
Let The World See That This Nation Can Bear Prosperity; And That Her Honest Virtue In Time Of Peace Is Equal To Her Bravest Valor In Time Of War.
Peace
War
World
A Man May Write Himself Out Of Reputation When Nobody Else Can Do It.
Writing
Men
May
Small Islands, Not Capable Of Protecting Themselves, Are The Proper Objects For Kingdoms To Take Under Their Care; But There Is Something Absurd, In Supposing A Continent To Be Perpetually Governed By An Island.
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No Country Can Be Called Free Which Is Governed By An Absolute Power; And It Matters Not Whether It Be An Absolute Royal Power Or An Absolute Legislative Power, As The Consequences Will Be The Same To The People.
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My Mind Is My Own Church.
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Mind
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Of More Worth Is One Honest Man To Society, And In The Sight Of God, Than All The Crowned Ruffians That Ever Lived.
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The United States Of America Will Sound As Pompously In The World Or In History As The Kingdom Of Great Britain.
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Sound
Europe, And Not England, Is The Parent Country Of America. This New World Hath Been The Asylum For The Persecuted Lovers Of Civil And Religious Liberty From Every Part Of Europe.
Religious
Liberty
Immigration
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.
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Stars
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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.
Government
Church
States
The Duty Of Man Is Not A Wilderness Of Turnpike Gates, Through Which He Is To Pass By Tickets From One To The Other. It Is Plain And Simple, And Consists But Of Two Points--his Duty God, Which Every Man Must Feel; And, With Respect To His Neighbor, To Do As He Would Be Done By.
Simple
Men
Two
The Bill Of Rights Should Contain The General Principles Of Natural And Civil Liberty. It Should Be To A Community What The Eternal Laws And Obligations Of Morality Are To The Conscience. It Should Be Unalterable By Any Human Power.
Rights
Law
Community
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.
God
Peace
Truth
Every Age And Generation Must Be As Free To Act For Itself In All Cases As The Ages And Generations Which Preceded It. The Vanity And Presumption Of Governing Beyond The Grave Is The Most Ridiculous And Insolent Of All Tyrannies.
Vanity
Age
Generations
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.
Lying
Men
Action
The Grecians And Romans Were Strongly Possessed Of The Spirit Of Liberty But Not The Principle, For At The Time They Were Determined Not To Be Slaves Themselves, They Employed Their Power To Enslave The Rest Of Mankind.
Government
Liberty
Principles
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.
Religious
Jesus
Father
What We Obtain Too Cheap, We Esteem Too Lightly; It Is Dearness Only That Gives Everything Its Value.
Inspirational
Perseverance
Motivation
Those Who Expect To Reap The Blessings Of Freedom Must, Like Men, Undergo The Fatigue Of Supporting It.
Inspirational
Life
Motivational
A Share In Two Revolutions Is Living To Some Purpose.
Two
Purpose
Revolution
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.
4th Of July
Home
Character
All This [paul's Writing] Is Nothing Better Than The Jargon Of A Conjurer Who Picks Up Phrases He Does Not Understand To Confound The Credulous People Who Come To Have Their Fortune Told. Age Of Reason
Writing
Thinking
People
One Of The Evils Of Paper Money Is That It Turns The Whole Country Into Stock Jobbers. The Precariousness Of Its Value And The Uncertainty Of Its Fate Continually Operate, Night And Day, To Produce This Destructive Effect. Having No Real Value In Itself It Depends For Support Upon Accident, Caprice, And Party; And As It Is The Interest Of Some To Depreciate And Of Others To Raise Its Value, There Is A Continual Invention Going On That Destroys The Morals Of The Country.
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Real
Party
The Vatican Is A Dagger In The Heart Of Italy.
Heart
Daggers
Superstitions
It Is Painful To Behold A Man Employing His Talents To Corrupt Himself.
Men
Political
Politics
As Priestcraft Was Always The Enemy Of Knowledge, Because Priestcraft Supports Itself By Keeping People In Delusion And Ignorance, It Was Consistent With Its Policy To Make The Acquisition Of Knowledge A Real Sin.
Real
Ignorance
People
Peace, Which Costs Nothing, Is Attended With Infinitely More Advantage Than Any Victory With All Its Expence.
Money
War
Victory
To Reason With Goverments, As They Have Existed For Ages, Is To Argue With Brutes. It Is Only From The Nations Themselves That Reforms Can Be Expected
Age
Reform
Arguing
Let Them Call Me Rebel, And Welcome, I Feel No Concern From It.
Rebel
Revolutionary
Call Me
Wisdom Degenerates In Governments As Governments Increase In Age.
Government
Political
Age
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.
Years
Religion
Church
Men Should Not Petition For Rights, But Take Them
Men
Rights
Should
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.
Ocean
Thinking
Reflection
The Fable Of Christ And His Twelve Apostles Is A Parody Of The Sun And The Twelve Signs Of The Zodiac, Copied From The Ancient Religions Of The Eastern World. Every Thing Told Of Christ Has Reference To The Sun. His Reported Resurrection Is At Sunrise, And That On The First Day Of The Week; That Is, On The Day Anciently Dedicated To The Sun, And From Thence Called Sunday.
Sunday
Zodiac
Sunrise
When Authors And Critics Talk Of The Sublime, They See Not How Nearly It Borders On The Ridiculous.
Sublime
Borders
Ridiculous
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.
Philosophy
Circles
Study
It Is Not In Numbers, But In Unity, That Our Great Strength Lies.
Lying
Numbers
Unity
It Can Only Be By Blinding The Understanding Of Man, And Making Him Believe That Government Is Some Wonderful Mysterious Thing, That Excessive Revenues Are Obtained. Monarchy Is Well Calculated To Ensure This End. It Is The Popery Of Government; A Thing Kept Up To Amuse The Ignorant, And Quiet Them Into Taxes.
Believe
Men
Mysterious Things
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.
Men
Christianity
Reason
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.
Men
Opportunity
Knowing
Freedom Had Been Hunted Round The Globe; Reason Was Considered As Rebellion; And The Slavery Of Fear Had Made Men Afraid To Think. But Such Is The Irresistible Nature Of Truth, That All It Asks, And All It Wants, Is The Liberty Of Appearing.
Truth
Freedom
Men
Youth Is The Seed Time Of Good Habits, As Well In Nations As In Individuals.
Youth
Habit
Individual
The Mind, In Discovering Truths, Acts In The Same Manner As It Acts Through The Eye In Discovering Objects; When Once Any Object Has Been Seen, It Is Impossible To Put The Mind Back To The Same Condition It Was In Before It Saw It.
Truth
Eye
Mind
It Is The Duty Of Every True Deist To Vindicate The Moral Justice Of God Against The Evils Of The Bible.
Justice Of God
Evil
Moral
All National Institutions Of Churches, Whether Jewish, Christian Or Turkish, Appear To Me No Other Than Human Inventions, Set Up To Terrify And Enslave Mankind, And Monopolize Power And Profit.
Inspirational
Christian
Atheist
When A Man Has So Far Corrupted And Prostituted The Chastity Of His Mind, As To [profess] Things He Does Not Believe, He Has Prepared Himself For The Commission Of Every Other Crime.
Honesty
Integrity
Believe
How Necessary It Is At All Times To Watch Against The Attempted Encroachment Of Power, And To Prevent Its Running To Excess.
Running
Power
Watches
The Slavery Of Fear Had Made Men Afraid To Think.
Men
Thinking
Slavery
Of All The Tyrannies That Effect Mankind, Tyranny In Religion Is The Worst; Every Other Species Of Tyranny Is Limited To The World We Live In; But This Attempts To Stride Beyond The Grave, And Seeks To Pursue Us Into Eternity.
Religion
World
Christianity
There Are Two Distinct Classes Of Men - Those Who Pay Taxes And Those Who Receive And Live Upon Taxes.
Men
Class
Two
Of All The Tyrannies That Affect Mankind, Tyranny In Religion Is The Worst.
Christian
Religious
Atheist
Man Cannot Make, Or Invent, Or Contrive Principles; He Can Only Discover Them; And He Ought To Look Through The Discovery To The Author.
Men
Discovery
Principles
Prejudice Will Fall In A Combat With Interest.
Fall
Prejudice
Combat
Mingling Religion With Politics May Be Disavowed And Reprobated By Every Inhabitant Of America.
America
May
Mingling
The Accumulation Of Great Wealth Is, In Many Instances, The Effect Of Paying Too Little For The Labor That Produced It, The Consequence Of Which Is That The Working People Perish In Old Age And The Employer Abounds In Affluence.
People
Age
Littles
I Die In Perfect Composure And Resignation To The Will Of My Creator, God.
Creator God
Perfect
Composure
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.
Country
Peace
War
To Live With Our Enemies As If They May Some Time Become Our Friends, And To Live With Our Friends As If They May Some Time Become Our Enemies, Is Not A Moral But A Political Maxim
Political
Enemy
May
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.
Country
Ignorance
Government
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.
Land
Lazy
Males
I Have As Little Superstition In Me As Any Man Living, But My Secret Opinion Has Ever Been, And Still Is, That God Almighty Will Not Give Up A People To Military Destruction, Or Leave Them Unsupportedly To Perish, Who Have So Earnestly And So Repeatedly Sought To Avoid The Calamities Of War, By Every Decent Method Which Wisdom Could Invent. Neither Have I So Much Of The Infidel In Me, As To Suppose That He Has Relinquished The Government Of The World, And Given Us Up To The Care Of Devils.
Giving Up
Military
War
If Those To Whom Power Is Delegated Do Well, They Will Be Respected; If Not, They Will Be Despised.
Political
Politics
Wells
Government Is Best Which Governs Least
Freedom
Democracies Have
Government
He Who Is The Author Of A War Lets Loose The Whole Contagion Of Hell And Opens A Vein That Bleeds A Nation To Death.
Motivation
War
Government
His [jesus'] Historians, Having Brought Him Into The World In A Supernatural Manner, Were Obliged To Take Him Out Again In The Same Manner, Or The First Part Of The Story Must Have Fallen To The Ground.
Jesus
Religion
Stories
When It Becomes Necessary To Do A Thing, The Whole Heart And Soul Should Go Into The Measure, Or Not Attempt It.
Heart
Soul
Trying
When The Tongue Or The Pen Is Let Loose In A Frenzy Of Passion, It Is The Man, And Not The Subject, That Becomes Exhausted.
Passion
Men
Tongue
The Mind Once Enlightened Cannot Again Become Dark.
Education
Dark
Mind
The Whole Religious Complexion Of The Modern World Is Due To The Absence From Jerusalem Of A Lunatic Asylum.
Religious
Bipolar
Religion
When We Are Planning For Posterity, We Ought To Remember That Virtue Is Not Hereditary.
Pain
War
4th Of July
It Is Never To Be Expected In A Revolution That Every Man Is To Change His Opinion At The Same Moment. There Never Yet Was Any Truth Or Any Principle So Irresistibly Obvious That All Men Believed It At Once. Time And Reason Must Cooperate With Each Other To The Final Establishment Of Any Principle; And Therefore Those Who May Happen To Be First Convinced Have Not A Right To Persecute Others, On Whom Conviction Operates More Slowly. The Moral Principle Of Revolutions Is To Instruct, Not To Destroy.
Truth
Men
Principles
Mystery Is The Antagonist Of Truth. It Is A Fog Of Human Invention, That Obscures Truth, And Represents It In Distortion.
Fog
Mystery
Invention
The Most Formidable Weapon Against Errors Of Every Kind Is Reason.
Trust
Motivation
Mistake
Government Is A Necessary Evil
Government
Evil
Necessary Evil
The New Testament Rests Itself For Credulity And Testimony On What Are Called Prophecies In The Old Testament, Of The Person Called Jesus Christ; And If There Are No Such Things As Prophecies Of Any Such Person In The Old Testament, The New Testament.
Jesus
Christ
Old Testament
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.
Christian
Son
Men
No Nation Ought To Be Without A Debt. A National Debt Is A National Bond; And When It Bears No Interest, Is In No Case A Grievance.
Debt
Bears
Cases
The Allwise Creator Hath Been Dishonored By Being Made The Author Of Fable And The Human Mind Degraded By Believing It.
Believe
Mind
Fables
Infidelity 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.
Lying
Believe
Men
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.
Men
Scarcity
Credit
If There Must Be Trouble, Let It Be In My Day, That My Child May Have Peace.
Veterans Day
Time
Peace
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
Revenge
Animal
Men
As Property, Honestly Obtained, Is Best Secured By An Equality Of Rights, So Ill-gotten Property Depends For Protection On A Monopoly Of Rights. He Who Has Robbed Another Of His Property, Will Next Endeavor To Disarm Him Of His Rights, To Secure That Property; For When The Robber Becomes The Legislator He Believes Himself Secure.
Believe
Rights
Political
In The Progress Of Politics, As In The Common Occurrences Of Life, We Are Not Only Apt To Forget The Ground We Have Travelled Over, But Frequently Neglect To Gather Up Experiences As We Go.
Travel
Progress
Politics
A Constitution, Therefore, Is To A Government What The Laws Made Afterwards By That Government Are To A Court Of Judicature. The Court Of Judicature Does Not Make The Laws, Neither Can It Alter Them; It Only Acts In Conformity To The Laws Made: And The Government Is In Like Manner Governed By The Constitution.
Government
Law
Doe
The Times That Tried Men's Souls Are Over-and The Greatest And Completest Revolution The World Ever Knew, Gloriously And Happily Accomplished.
Men
Soul
World
Aristocracy Is Kept Up By Family Tyranny And Injustice.
Aristocracy
Injustice
Tyranny
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.
Revenge
War
Heart
There Is Something In Meanness Which Excites A Species Of Resentment That Never Subsides, And Something In Cruelty Which Stirs Up The Heart To The Highest Agony Of Human Hatred.
Heart
Agony
Hatred
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.
Truth
Honesty
Mystery
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.
Country
War
Rights
"government," Says Swift, "is A Plain Thing, And Fitted To The Capacity Of Many Heads."
Government
Political
Politics
War Is The Gambling Table Of Governments, And Citizens The Dupes Of The Game.
War
Gambling
Government
The Essential Psychological Requirement Of A Free Society Is The Willingness On The Part Of The Individual To Accept Responsibility For His Life. - Edith Packer When The Government Fears The People, It Is Liberty. When The People Fear The Government, It Is Tyranny.
Responsibility
Government
People
Time Makes More Converts Than Reason.
Life
Time
Motivation
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.
Christian
Men
Thinking
Prejudice, Like The Spider, Makes Everywhere Its Home. It Has Neither Taste Nor Choice Of Place, And All That It Requires Is Room. If The One Prepares Her Food By Poisoning It To Her Palate And Her Use, The Other Does The Same. Prejudice May Be Denominated The Spider Of The Mind.
Home
Choices
Mind
It Is The Duty Of Every Man, As Far As His Ability Extends, To Detect And Expose Delusion And Error.
Men
Errors
Duty
Reputation Is What Men And Women Think Of Us; Character Is What God And Angels Know Of Us.
Inspirational
Motivation
Character
The Bible Is A Book That Has Been Read More And Examined Less Than Any Book That Ever Existed.
Bible
Religious
Book
It Is A Fraud Of The Christian System To Call The Sciences Human Invention; It Is Only The Application Of Them That Is Human.
Christian
Science
Invention
It Was Needless, After This, To Say That All Was Vanity And Vexation Of Spirit; For It Is Impossible To Derive Happiness From The Company Of Those Whom We Deprive Of Happiness.
Vanity
Vexation
Spirit
For The Fate Of Charles The First, Hath Only Made Kings More Subtle — Not More Just.
Kings
Fate
Revolution
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.
Political
Liberty
Principles
Liberty Cannot Be Purchased By A Wish.
Wish
Liberty
The Burden Of The National Debt Consists Not In Its Being So Many Millions, Or So Many Hundred Millions, But In The Quantity Of Taxes Collected Every Year To Pay The Interest. If This Quantity Continue The Same, The Burden Of The National Debt Is The Same To All Intents And Purposes, Be The Capital More Or Less.
Years
Purpose
Debt
My Country Is Wherever Liberty Lives.
Country
Liberty
The Study Of Theology, As It Stands In Christian Churches, Is The Study Of Nothing; It Is Founded On Nothing; It Rests On No Principles; It Proceeds By No Authorities; It Has No Data; It Can Demonstrate Nothing; And It Admits Of No Conclusion.
Christian
Data
Religion
As To The Book Called The Bible, It Is Blasphemy To Call It The Word Of God. It Is A Book Of Lies And Contradictions And A History Of Bad Times And Bad Men.
Christian
Religious
Lying
Human Nature Is Not Of Itself Vicious.
Nature
Motivation
Vicious
Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.


2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.


2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.


2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.


3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.


3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.


3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.



4. Proper Usage of Quotes


4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.


4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.


4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).


5. Common Mistakes to Avoid


5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.


5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.


5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.



6. Quotes in Different Contexts


6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.


6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.


6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.



7. Punctuation and Formatting


Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:


Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.


Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.


Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.



8. Ethical Considerations


Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes


Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.



Conclusion


Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.


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