Thomas Paine: “By the operation of this plan, the poor laws, those instruments of civil torture, will be superseded, and the wasteful…”

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.

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

When men unite in agreeing that a thing is good, could it be obtained, such for instance as relief from a burden of taxes and the extinction of corruption, the object is more than half accomplished.

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.