Quote

The reformation was preceded by the discovery of America, as if the Almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.

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
America
Discovery
Graciously
Home
Meant
Preceded
Years
Neither
Persecuted
Friendship
Reformation
Liberty
Sanctuary
Open
Almighty
Religious
Afford
Future
Safety

More quotes by Thomas Paine

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Now, which am I to believe, a book that any impostor might make and call the Word of God, or the creation itself which none but an Almighty Power could make? For the Bible says one thing and the creation says the contrary. The Bible represents God with all the passions of a mortal, and the creation proclaims him with all the attributes of a God.
Thomas Paine
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Ignorance is of a peculiar nature once dispelled, it is impossible to reestablish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant.
Thomas Paine
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The story of the whale swallowing Jonah, though a whale is large enough to do it, borders greatly on the marvelous but it would have approached nearer to the idea of a miracle if Jonah had swallowed the whale.
Thomas Paine
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All men can understand what representation is and that it must necessarily include a variety of knowledge and talents.
Thomas Paine
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Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.
Thomas Paine
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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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I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature, which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered and the easier repaired when disordered.
Thomas Paine
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These are the times that try men's souls.
Thomas Paine
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We repose an unwise confidence in any government, or in any men, when we invest them officially with too much, or an unnecessary quantity of, discretionary power.
Thomas Paine
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What is called a republic, is not any particular form of government ... it is naturally opposed to the word monarchy, which means arbitrary power.
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.
Thomas Paine
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It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
Thomas Paine
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The danger to which the success of revolutions is most exposed, is that of attempting them before the principles on which they proceed, and the advantages to result from them, are sufficiently seen and understood.
Thomas Paine
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Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage than any victory with all its expence.
Thomas Paine
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It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
Thomas Paine
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The stupid texts of the Bible - from which, be the talents of the preacher what they may, only stupid sermons can be preached.
Thomas Paine
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The representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can be found.
Thomas Paine
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Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifiying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity.
Thomas Paine
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All Of Us Might Wish At Times That We Lived In A More Tranquil World....(yet) Our Times Are Challenging And Filled With Opportunity.
Thomas Paine
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Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
Thomas Paine