Thomas Paine: “Thus aided and thus supported, disaffection will decline, and the withered head of tyranny expire in America.”

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

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

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.

Why may we not suppose, that the great Father of all is pleased with variety of devotion; and that the greatest offence we can act, is that by which we seek to torment and render each other miserable?