Quote

Each government accuses the other of perfidy, intrigue and ambition, as a means of heating the imagination of their respective nations, and incensing them to hostilities. Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of government.

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
Liberty
Heating
Imagination
Intrigue
Enemy
Hostility
Nations
Medium
Means
Mediums
Accuses
Government
False
Perfidy
Mean
Ambition
Hostilities
Men
System
Respective

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Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters.
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It has been the political career of this man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with arrogance, and finish with contempt
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I believe in one God, and no more and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of humans and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.
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It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
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It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.
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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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Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.
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Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
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All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
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From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.
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I detest the Bible as I detest everything that is cruel.
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The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case.
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The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.
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It is a general idea, that when taxes are once laid on, they are never taken off.
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He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
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Titles do not count with posterity.
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I am sensible that he who means to do mankind a real service must set down with the determination of putting up, and bearing with all their faults, follies, prejudices and mistakes until he can convince them that he is right.
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Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.
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It is from our enemies that we often gain excellent maxims, and are frequently surprised into reason by their mistakes.
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A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
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