Thomas Paine: “You shall have so much, and I will have the rest; and with respect to the nation, it said, for your share, You shall…”

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.

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

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.