Background Image

...

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.

-Thomas Paine

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Story Of The

Thomas Paine

...

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.

Views: 10

Topic

More From Thomas Paine

To Possess Ourselves Of A Clear Idea Of What Government Is, Or Ought To Be, We Must Trace It To Its Origin.

The More We Bestow The Richer We Become.

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

The Idea Of Hereditary Legislators Is As Inconsistent As That Of Hereditary Judges, Or Hereditary Juries; And As Absurd As An Hereditary Mathematician, Or An Hereditary Wise Man; And As Ridiculous As An Hereditary Poet-laureat.

It Is Easy To See That When Republican Virtue Fails, Slavery Ensues.

It Is From The Power Of Taxation Being In The Hands Of Those Who Can Throw So Great A Part Of It From Their Own Shoulders, That It Has Raged Without A Check.

Here Then Is The Origin And Rise Of Government; Namely, A Mode Rendered Necessary By The Inability Of Moral Virtue To Govern The World; Here Too Is The Design And End Of Government, Viz. Freedom And Security.

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

It Is The Madness Of Folly, To Expect Mercy From Those Who Have Refused To Do Justice; And Even Mercy, Where Conquest Is The Object, Is Only A Trick Of War; The Cunning Of The Fox Is As Murderous As The Violence Of The Wolf.

I Believe In One God, And No More; And I Hope For Happiness Beyond This Life.

Founding Fathers Atheist

It Is Only By The Exercise Of Reason That Man Can Discover God.

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 Forever, And Tho' Himself Might Deserve Some Decent Degree Of Honours Of His Cotemporaries, Yet His Descendants Might Be Far Too Unworthy To Inherit Them.

Immediate Necessity Makes Many Things Convenient, Which If Continued Would Grow Into Oppressions.

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.

I Wish Most Anxiously To See My Much Loved America - It Is The Country From Whence All Reformations Must Originally Spring - I Despair Of Seeing An Abolition Of The Infernal Trafic In Negroes - We Must Push That Matter Further On Your Side The Water - I Wish That A Few Well Instructed Negroes Could Be Sent Among Their Brethren In Bondage, For Until They Are Enabled To Take Their Own Part Nothing Will Be Done.

Any System Of Religion That Has Anything In It That Shocks The Mind Of A Child, Cannot Be True.

The Vatican Is A Dagger In The Heart Of Italy.

I Prefer Peace. But If Trouble Must Come, Let It Come In My Time, So That My Children Can Live In Peace.

Rights Are Not Gifts From One Man To Another, Nor From One Class Of Men To Another. It Is Impossible To Discover Any Origin Of Rights Otherwise Than In The Origin Of Man; It Consequently Follows That Rights Appertain To Man In Right Of His Existence, And Must Therefore Be Equal To Every Man.

Let It Be Told To The Future World, That In The Depth Of Winter, When Nothing But Hope And Virtue Could Survive, The City And The Country, Alarmed At One Common Danger, Came Forth To Meet And To Repulse It.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I Have Always Strenuously Supported The Right Of Every Man To His Own Opinion, However Different That Opinion Might Be To Mine. He Who Denies To Another This Right, Makes A Slave Of Himself To His Present Opinion, Because He Precludes Himself The Right Of Changing It.

If There Was Ever A Just War Since The World Began, It Is This In Which America Is Now Engaged.

It May Perhaps Be Said That It Signifies Nothing To A Man What Is Done To Him After He Is Dead; But It Signifies Much To The Living; It Either Tortures Their Feelings Or Hardens Their Hearts.

As My Object Was Not Myself, I Set Out With The Determination, And Happily With The Disposition, Of Not Being Moved By Praise Or Censure, Friendship Or Calumny, Nor Of Being Drawn From My Purpose By Any Personal Altercation; And The Man Who Cannot Do This, Is Not Fit For A Public Character.

That God Cannot Lie, Is No Advantage To Your Argument, Because It Is No Proof That Priests Can Not, Or That The Bible Does Not.

How Strangely Is Antiquity Treated! To Answer Some Purposes It Is Spoken Of As The Times Of Darkness And Ignorance, And To Answer Others, It Is Put For The Light Of The World.

Human Language Is Local And Changeable, And Is Therefore Incapable Of Being Used As The Means Of Unchangeable And Universal Information.

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

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.

Man Must Go Back To Nature For Information.

Could The Peaceable Principle Of The Quakers Be Universally Established, Arms And The Art Of War Would Be Wholly Extirpated: But We Live Not In A World Of Angels...i Am Thus Far A Quaker, That I Would Gladly Agree With All The World To Lay Aside The Use Of Arms, And Settle Matters By Negotiation: But Unless The Whole Will, The Matter Ends, And I Take Up My Musket And Thank Heaven He Has Put It In My Power.

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.

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.

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.

It Is Unpleasant To See Character Throw Itself Away.

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 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.

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.

Universal Empire Is The Prerogative Of A Writer. His Concerns Are With All Mankind, And Though He Cannot Command Their Obedience,he Can Assign Them Their Duty. The Republic Of Letters Is More Ancient Than Monarchy, And Of Far Higher Character In The World Than The Vassal Court Of Britain.

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

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

O Ye That Love Mankind! Ye That Dare Oppose, Not Only The Tyranny, But The Tyrant, Stand Forth! Every Spot Of The Old World Is Overrun With Oppression. Freedom Hath Been Hunted Round The Globe. Asia, And Africa, Have Long Expelled Her. Europe Regards Her Like A Stranger, And England Hath Given Her Warning To Depart. O! Receive The Fugitive, And Prepare In Time An Asylum For Mankind.

Suspicion Is The Companion Of Mean Souls, And The Bane Of All Good Society.

Every Person Of Learning Is Finally His Own Teacher.

We Ought Therefore To Suspect That A Great Mass Of Information Respecting The Bible, And The Introduction Of It Into The World, Has Been Suppressed By The United Tyranny Of Church And State, For The Purpose Of Keeping People In Ignorance, And Which Ought To Be Known.

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.

From The Errors Of Other Nations, Let Us Learn Wisdom.

No Man Is Prejudiced In Favor Of A Thing, Knowing It To Be Wrong. He Is Attached To It On The Belief Of Its Being Right; And When He Sees It Is Not So, The Prejudice Will Be Gone.

Wisdom Degenerates In Governments As Governments Increase In Age.

But If Objects For Gratitude And Admiration Are Our Desire, Do They Not Present Themselves Every Hour To Our Eyes?

Some Writers Have So Confounded Society With Government, As To Leave Little Or No Distinction Between Them; Whereas They Are Not Only Different, But Have Different Origins ... Society Is In Every State A Blessing, But Government, Even In Its Best State, Is But A Necessary Evil; In Its Worst State, An Intolerable One.

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

Belief In A Cruel God Makes A Cruel Man.

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

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.

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

Peace, Which Costs Nothing, Is Attended With Infinitely More Advantage Than Any Victory With All Its Expence.

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.

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.

Men Did Not Make The Earth... It Is The Value Of The Improvements Only, And Not The Earth Itself, That Is Individual Property. ... Every Proprietor Owes To The Community A Ground Rent For The Land Which He Holds.

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.

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.

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

It Has Been The Scheme Of The Christian Church, And Of All The Other Invented Systems Of Religion, To Hold Man In Ignorance Of The Creator, As It Is Of Government To Hold Man In Ignorance Of His Rights. The Systems Of The One Are As False As Those Of The Other, And Are Calculated For Mutual Support.

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.

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.

The Christian System Of Religion Is An Outrage On Common Sense.

Better Fare Hard With Good Men Than Feast It With Bad.

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.

I Am Sensible That He Who Means To Do Mankind A Real Service Must Set Down With The Determination Of Putting Up, And Bearing With All Their Faults, Follies, Prejudices And Mistakes Until He Can Convince Them That He Is Right.

Not A Place Upon Earth Might Be So Happy As America. Her Situation Is Remote From All The Wrangling World, And She Has Nothing To Do But To Trade With Them.

Common Sense Will Tell Us, That The Power Which Hath Endeavoured To Subdue Us, Is Of All Others, The Most Improper To Defend Us.

Those Who Knew Benjamin Franklin Will Recollect That His Mind Was Forever Young, His Temper Ever Serene; Science, That Never Grows Gray, Was Always His Mistress. He Was Never Without An Object, For When We Cease To Have An Object, We Become Like An Invalid In A Hospital Waiting For Death.

It Is A Fool Only, And Not The Philosopher, Nor Even The Prudent Man, That Will Live As If There Were No God... Were A Man Impressed As Fully And Strongly As He Ought To Be With The Belief Of A God, His Moral Life Would Be Regulated By The Force Of Belief; He Would Stand In Awe Of God And Of Himself, And Would Not Do The Thing That Could Not Be Concealed From Either.

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.

The Only Idea Man Can Affix To The Name Of God, Is That Of A First Cause, The Cause Of All Things. And, Incomprehensibly Difficult As It Is For A Man To Conceive What A First Cause Is, He Arrives At The Belief Of It, From The Tenfold Greater Difficulty Of Disbelieving It. It Is Difficult Beyond Description To Conceive That Space Can Have No End; But It Is More Difficult To Conceive An End. It Is Difficult Beyond The Power Of Man To Conceive An Eternal Duration Of What We Call Time; But It Is More Impossible To Conceive A Time When There Shall Be No Time.

It Is Not A Field Of A Few Acres Of Ground, But A Cause, That We Are Defending, And Whether We Defeat The Enemy In One Battle, Or By Degrees, The Consequences Will Be The Same.

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

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 American Constitutions Were To Liberty, What A Grammar Is To Language: They Define Its Parts Of Speech, And Practically Construct Them Into Syntax

It Is Not The Nature Of Avarice To Be Satisfied With Anything But Money. Every Passion That Acts Upon Mankind Has A Peculiar Mode Of Operation. Many Of Them Are Temporary And Fluctuating; They Admit Of Cessation And Variety. But Avarice Is A Fixed, Uniform Passion.

A Government Of Our Own Is Our Natural Right

'tis The Business Of Little Minds To Shrink; But He Whose Heart Is Firm, And Whose Conscience Approves His Conduct, Will Pursue His Principles Unto Death.

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.

The Story Of The Redemption Will Not Stand Examination. That Man Should Redeem Himself From The Sin Of Eating An Apple By Committing A Murder On Jesus Christ, Is The Strangest System Of Religion Ever Set Up.

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.

Those Who Expect To Reap The Blessing Of Freedom Must Undertake To Support It.

The Intimacy Which Is Contracted In Infancy, And Friendship Which Is Formed In Misfortune, Are, Of All Others, The Most Lasting And Unalterable.

The Sublime And The Ridiculous Are Often So Nearly Related, That It Is Difficult To Class Them Separately. One Step Above The Sublime Makes The Ridiculous, And One Step Above The Ridiculous Makes The Sublime Again.

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

All Of Us Might Wish At Times That We Lived In A More Tranquil World....(yet) Our Times Are Challenging And Filled With Opportunity.

I Detest The Bible As I Detest Everything That Is Cruel.

The Circumstances Of The World Are Continually Changing, And The Opinions Of Men Change Also; And As Government Is For The Living, And Not For The Dead, It Is The Living Only That Has Any Right In It. That Which May Be Thought Right And Found Convenient In One Age, May Be Thought Wrong And Found Inconvenient In Another. In Such Cases, Who Is To Decide, The Living, Or The Dead?

There Is No Greater Tyranny Than That Of The Dead Over The Living.

We Hold The Moral Obligation Of Providing For Old Age, Helpless Infancy, And Poverty Is Far Superior To That Of Supplying The Invented Wants Of Courtly Extravagance.

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.

The Most Horrible Wickedness And Cruelties, And The Greatest Miseries That Have Troubled The Human Race Began With This Thing Called Revelation, Or Revealed Religion. ... It Would Be Far, Far Better For Us To Let A Thousand Devils Roam The World, And Publicly Preach The Doctrine Of Devils (if There Were Such A Thing, Which There Isn't), Than To Let One Impostor And Monster Such A Moses, Joshua, Samuel Or The Bible Prophets Come Speaking The So-called Word Of God, And Causing Men To Believe It.

If I Do Not Believe As You Believe, It Proves That You Do Not Believe As I Believe, And That Is All That It Proves.

Paper Money Is Like Dram-drinking, It Relieves For A Moment By Deceitful Sensation, But Gradually Diminishes The Natural Heat, And Leaves The Body Worse Than It Found It. Were Not This The Case, And Could Money Be Made Of Paper At Pleasure, Every Sovereign In Europe Would Be As Rich As He Pleased. But The Truth Is, That It Is A Bubble And The Attempt Vanity. Nature Has Provided The Proper Materials For Money: Gold And Silver, And Any Attempt Of Ours To Rival Her Is Ridiculous.

The Creation Speaks A Universal Language, Independent Of Human Speech Or Human Language, Multiplied And Various As They Be. It Is An Ever-existing Original, Which Every Man Can Read. It Cannot Be Forged; It Cannot Be Counterfeited; It Cannot Be Lost; It Cannot Be Altered; It Cannot Be Suppressed. It Does Not Depend Upon The Will Of Man Whether It Shall Be Published Or Not; It Publishes Itself From One End Of The Earth To The Other. It Preaches To All Nations And To All Worlds; And This Word Of God Reveals To Man All That Is Necessary For Man To Know Of God.

Science Is The True Theology.

When Authors And Critics Talk Of The Sublime, They See Not How Nearly It Borders On The Ridiculous.

Ye That Dare Oppose, Not Only Tyranny, But The Tyrant, Stand Forth!

Everything Wonderful In Appearance Has Been Ascribed To Angels, To Devils, Or To Saints. Everything Ancient Has Some Legendary Tale Annexed To It. The Common Operations Of Nature Have Not Escaped Their Practice Of Corrupting Everything.

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?"

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.

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

Moderation In Temper Is Always A Virtue; But Moderation In Principle Is Always A Vice.

The Most Formidable Weapon Against Errors Of Every Kind Is Reason.

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

The Intellectual Part Of Religion Is A Private Affair Between Every Man And His Maker, And In Which No Third Party Has Any Right To Interfere. The Practical Part Consists In Our Doing Good To Each Other. But Since Religion Has Been Made Into A Trade, The Practical Part Has Been Made To Consist Of Ceremonies Performed By Men Called Priests ... By Devices Of This Kind True Religion Has Been Banished, And Such Means Have Been Found Out To Extract Money, Even From The Pockets Of The Poor, Instead Of Contributing To Their Relief.

The Nearer Any Disease Approaches To A Crisis, The Nearer It Is To A Cure. Danger And Deliverance Make Their Advances Together; And It Is Only In The Last Push That One Or The Other Takes The Lead.

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

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.

It Has Been The Error Of The Schools To Teach Astronomy, And All The Other Sciences, And Subjects Of Natural Philosophy, As Accomplishments Only; Whereas They Should Be Taught Theologically, Or With Reference To The Being Who Is The Author Of Them: For All The Principles Of Science Are Of Divine Origin. Man Cannot Make, Or Invent, Or Contrive Principles: He Can Only Discover Them; And He Ought To Look Through The Discovery To The Author.

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.

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

Is It Not A Species Of Blasphemy To Call The New Testament Revealed Religion, When We See In It Such Contradictions And Absurdities.

Where Knowledge Is A Duty, Ignorance Is A Crime.

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 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.

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

Commerce Is No Other Than The Traffic Of Two Individuals, Multiplied On A Scale Of Number; And, By The Same Rule That Nature Intended The Intercourse Of Two, She Intended That Of All!

Virtue Is Not Hereditary.

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.

That There Are Men In All Countries Who Get Their Living By War, And By Keeping Up The Quarrels Of Nations Is As Shocking As It Is True.

It Will Be Proper To Take A Review Of The Several Sources From Which Governments Have Arisen, And On Which They Have Been Founded.

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

One Good Schoolmaster Is Of More Use Than A Hundred Priests.

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.

The Earth, In Its Natural, Uncultivated State Was, And Ever Would Have Continued To Be, The Common Property Of The Human Race." As The Land Gets Cultivated, "it Is The Value Of The Improvement, Only, And Not The Earth Itself, That Is In Individual Property. Every Proprietor, Therefore, Of Cultivated Lands, Owes To The Community A Ground-rent..to Every Person, Rich Or Poor...because It Is In Lieu Of The Natural Inheritance, Which, As A Right, Belongs To Every Man, Over And Above The Property He May Have Created, Or Inherited From Those Who Did

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.

From Such Beginnings Of Governments, What Could Be Expected, But A Continual System Of War And Extortion?

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.

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.

This New World Hath Been The Asylum For The Persecuted Lovers Of Civil And Religious Liberty From Every Part Of Europe. Hither Have They Fled, Not From The Tender Embraces Of The Mother, But From The Cruelty Of The Monster; And It Is So Far True Of England, That The Same Tyranny Which Drove The First Emigrants From Home, Pursues Their Descendants Still.

Tears May Soothe The Wounds They Cannot Heal.

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.

There Is A Natural Firmness In Some Minds, Which Cannot Be Unlocked By Trifles, But Which, When Unlocked, Discovers A Cabinet Of Fortitude.

The New Testament, They Tell Us, Is Founded Upon The Prophecies Of The Old; If So, It Must Follow The Fate Of Its Foundation.

Mystery Is The Antagonist Of Truth. It Is A Fog Of Human Invention, That Obscures Truth, And Represents It In Distortion.

The Nt, Compared With The Old, Is Like A Farce Of One Act.

Whenever We Read The Obscene Stories, The Voluptuous Debaucheries, The Cruel And Tortuous Executions, The Unrelenting Vindictiveness With Which More Than Half The Bible Is Filled, It Would Be More Consistent That We Call It The Word Of A Demon Than The Word Of God. It Is A History Of Wickedness That Has Served To Corrupt And Brutalize Humankind.

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.

Man Did Not Make The Earth, And Though He Had A Natural Right To Occupy It, He Had No Right To Locate As His Property In Perpetuity, Any Part Of It.

He Who Takes Nature For His Guide, Is Not Easily Beaten Out Of His Argument

A Long Habit Of Not Thinking A Thing Wrong, Gives It A Superficial Appearance Of Being Right, And Raises At First A Formidable Outcry In Defense Of Custom. But The Tumult Soon Subsides. Time Makes More Converts Than Reason.

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

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.

He That Would Make His Own Liberty Secure, Must Guard Even His Enemy From Oppression; For If He Violates This Duty, He Establishes A Precedent That Will Reach To Himself.

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

War Is The Gambling Table Of Governments, And Citizens The Dupes Of The Game.

When My Country, Into Which I Had Just Set My Foot, Was Set On Fire About My Ears, It Was Time To Stir. It Was Time For Every Man To Stir.

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.

It Is With A Pious Fraud As With A Bad Action; It Begets A Calamitous Necessity Of Going On.

It Is Necessary To The Happiness Of Man That He Be Mentally Faithful To Himself. Infidelity Does Not Consist In Believing, Or In Disbelieving, It Consists In Professing To Believe What He Does Not Believe.

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.

...thomas Did Not Believe The Resurrection [john 20:25], And, As They Say, Would Not Believe Without Having Ocular And Manual Demonstration Himself. So Neither Will I, And The Reason Is Equally As Good For Me, And For Every Other Person, As For Thomas.

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.

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

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 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.

Government Is A Necessary Evil

He Who Dares Not Offend Cannot Be Honest.

What More Does Man Want To Know Than That The Hand Or Power That Made These Things Is Divine, Is Omnipotent? Let Him Believe This With The Force It Is Impossible To Repel, If He Permits His Reason To Act, And His Rule Of Moral Life Will Follow Of Course.

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

If, To Expose The Fraud And Imposition Of Monarchy . . . To Promote Universal Peace, Civilization, And Commerce, And To Break The Chains Of Political Superstition, And Raise Degraded Man To His Proper Rank; If These Things Be Libellous . . . Let The Name Of Libeller Be Engraved On My Tomb

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

...the Individuals Themselves, Each In His Own Personal And Sovereign Right, Entered Into A Compact With Each Other To Produce A Government: And This Is The Only Mode In Which Governments Have A Right To Arise, And The Only Principle On Which They Have A Right To Exist.

My Country Is Wherever Liberty Lives.

Commerce Diminishes The Spirit, Both Of Patriotism And Military Defence.

Of All The Tyrannies That Affect Mankind, Tyranny In Religion Is The Worst.

The Period Of Debate Is Closed. Arms, As A Last Resource, Must Decide The Contest.

Each Government Accuses The Other Of Perfidy, Intrigue And Ambition, As A Means Of Heating The Imagination Of Their Respective Nations, And Incensing Them To Hostilities. Man Is Not The Enemy Of Man, But Through The Medium Of A False System Of Government.

It Is From The Bible That Man Has Learned Cruelty, Rapine, And Murder; For The Belief Of A Cruel God Makes A Cruel Man.

Whence Arose All The Horrid Assassinations Of Whole Nations Of Men, Women, And Infants, With Which The Bible Is Filled; And The Bloody Persecutions, And Tortures Unto Death, And Religiosu Wars, That Since That Time Have Laid Europe In Blood And Ashes; Whence Arose They, But From This Impious Thing Called Religion, And This Monstrous Belief That God Has Spoken To Man?

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.

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

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.

Every Science Has For Its Basis A System Of Principles As Fixed And Unalterable As Those By Which The Universe Is Regulated And Governed. Man Cannot Make Principles; He Can Only Discover Them.

The Danger To Which The Success Of Revolutions Is Most Exposed, Is That Of Attempting Them Before The Principles On Which They Proceed, And The Advantages To Result From Them, Are Sufficiently Seen And Understood.

Yet This Is Trash That The Church Imposes Upon The World As The Word Of God; This Is The Collection Of Lies And Contradictions Called The Holy Bible! This Is The Rubbish Called Revealed Religion!

And When We View A Flag, Which To The Eye Is Beautiful, And To Contemplate Its Rise And Origin Inspires A Sensation Of Sublime Delight, Our National Honor Must Unite With Our Interests To Prevent Injury To The One, Or Insult To The Other.

All Men Can Understand What Representation Is; And That It Must Necessarily Include A Variety Of Knowledge And Talents.

To Be Nobly Wrong Is More Manly Than To Be Meanly Right.

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

They Took Care To Represent Government As A Thing Made Up Of Mysteries, Which Only Themselves Understood, And They Hid From The Understanding Of The Nation, The Only Thing That Was Beneficial To Know, Namely, That Government Is Nothing More Than A National Association Acting On The Principles Of Society.

War Ought To Be No Man's Wish.

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.

Trending Author

Christiane Amanpour

Herbert Kaufman

Category