Thomas Paine
The Public Record
Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. His pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the American Revolution. Paine advanced Enlightenment-era arguments for human rights that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic.
Jan 1, 1791
The opinions of men with respect to government are changing fast in all countries.
Jan 1, 1791
In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.
Jan 1, 1791
Ignorance is of a peculiar nature: once dispelled, it is impossible to re-establish it.
Jan 1, 1791
The mind, in discovering truth, 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.
Jan 1, 1791
The man who is in the receipt of a million a year is the last person to promote a spirit of reform, lest, in the event, it should reach to himself.
Jan 1, 1791
It is no relief, but an aggravation to a person in slavery, to reflect that he was sold by his parent; and as that which heightens the criminality of an act cannot be produced to prove the legality of it, hereditary succession cannot be…
Jan 1, 1791
Whether robbery shall be banished from courts, and wretchedness from countries?
Jan 1, 1791
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.
Jan 1, 1791
It appears to be something going much out of fashion, falling into ridicule, and rejected in some countries, both as unnecessary and expensive.