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For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.

Thomas Paine

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Thomas Paine
Age: 72 †
Born: 1737
Born: January 29
Died: 1809
Died: June 8
Author
Entrepreneur
Journalist
Opinion Journalist
Philosopher
Politician
Prosaist
Writer
Thetford
Norfolk
Might
Decent
Inherit
Right
Degree
Descendants
Men
Degrees
Equals
Deserve
Originally
Birth
Unworthy
Forever
Preference
Family
Honour
Others
Perpetual
Honours

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Every Tory is a coward for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.
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Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance.
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Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad.
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Government has no right to make itself a party in any debates respecting the principles or mode of forming or of changing, constitutions. It is not for the benefit of those who exercise the powers of government, that constitutions, and the governments issuing from them, are established.
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The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.
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Wrong cannot have a legal descendant.
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The times that tried men's souls are over-and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.
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I know not whether taxes are raised to fight wars, or wars are fought in order to raise taxes.
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For the fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.
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Titles are like a magicians wand which circumscribe human facility and prevent us from living the lives of man.
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The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
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Prejudice, like the spider, makes everywhere its home. It has neither taste nor choice of place, and all that it requires is room. If the one prepares her food by poisoning it to her palate and her use, the other does the same. Prejudice may be denominated the spider of the mind.
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I die content, I die for the liberty of my country.
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Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
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The intimacy which is contracted in infancy, and friendship which is formed in misfortune, are, of all others, the most lasting and unalterable.
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We ought therefore to suspect that a great mass of information respecting the Bible, and the introduction of it into the world, has been suppressed by the united tyranny of Church and State, for the purpose of keeping people in ignorance, and which ought to be known.
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The Almighty implanted in us these inextinguishable feelings for good and wise purposes. They are the guardians of His image in our heart. They distinguish us from the herd of common animals.
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Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying
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The duty of man is not a wilderness of turnpike gates, through which he is to pass by tickets from one to the other. It is plain and simple, and consists but of two points--his duty God, which every man must feel and, with respect to his neighbor, to do as he would be done by.
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And to read the Bible without horror, we must undo everything that is tender, sympathizing and benevolent in the heart of man.
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