Thomas Paine: “Never, I say, had a country so many openings to happiness as this.”

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.

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

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.