Thomas Paine: “The weaker any cord is, the less will it bear to be stretched, and the worse is the policy to stretch it, unless it is…”

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

As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.

With how much more glory, and advantage to itself, does a nation act, when it exerts its powers to rescue the world from bondage, and to create itself friends, than when it employs those powers to increase ruin, desolation, and misery.

When all the governments of Europe shall be established on the representative system, nations will become acquainted, and the animosities and prejudices fomented by the intrigue and artifice of courts, will cease.