Thomas Paine: “When taxes are proposed, the country is amused by the plausible language of taxing luxuries.”

It is only those who have not thought that appear to agree.

Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.

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

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.