Thomas Paine

Those who talk of a counter-revolution in France, show how little they understand of man.

The means must be an obliteration of knowledge; and it has never yet been discovered how to make man unknow his knowledge, or unthink his thoughts.

The rights of men in society, are neither devisable or transferable, nor annihilable, but are descendable only, and it is not in the power of any generation to intercept finally, and cut off the descent.

If the present generation, or any other, are disposed to be slaves, it does not lessen the right of the succeeding generation to be free.

A cannot make a will to take from B the property of B, and give it to C; yet this is the manner in which (what is called) hereditary succession by law operates.

From such principles, and such ignorance, good Lord deliver the world!

They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.

It appears to be something going much out of fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries, both as unnecessary and expensive.

The wisdom of every country, when properly exerted, is sufficient for all its purposes; and there could exist no more real occasion in England to have sent for a Dutch Stadtholder, or a German Elector, than there was in America to have…

If a country does not understand its own affairs, how is a foreigner to understand them, who knows neither its laws, its manners, nor its language?

I see in America the generality of people living in a style of plenty unknown in monarchical countries; and I see that the principle of its government, which is that of the equal Rights of Man, is making a rapid progress in the world.

Mankind are not now to be told they shall not think, or they shall not read; and publications that go no farther than to investigate principles of government, to invite men to reason and to reflect, and to show the errors and excellences…