Thomas Paine: “They do not give rights to A, but they make a difference in favour of A by taking away the right of B, and consequently…”

I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.

Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.

But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.

If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.