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Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority perfect equality affords no temptation.

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
Equality
Class
Perfect
Affords
Distinctions
Superiority
Distinction
Temptation

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Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
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The aristocracy are not the farmers who work the land, and raise the produce, but are the mere consumers of the rent and when compared with the active world, are the drones, a seraglio of males, who neither collect the honey nor form the hive, but exist only for lazy enjoyment.
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To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
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His [Jesus'] historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground.
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The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
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Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess.
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No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.
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We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest truest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
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Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society. Every civil right has for its foundation some natural right pre-existing in the individual, but to the enjoyment of which his individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all those which relate to security and protection.
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Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.
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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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Every proprietor owes to the community a ground-rent for the land which he holds.
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Reputation is what men and women think of us character is what God and angels know of us.
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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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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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Every religion is good that teaches man to be good and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
Thomas Paine
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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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The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.
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The case, however, is, that the Bible will not bear examination in any part of it, which it would do if it was the Word of God. Those who most believe it are those who know least about it, and priests always take care to keep the inconsistent and contradictory parts out of sight.
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No nation ought to be without a debt. A national debt is a national bond and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance.
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