Quote

The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not destitute of arms, for all would be alike but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside ... Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them ... the weak will become prey to the strong.

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
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Weak
Deprived
Horrid
Become
Balance
Alike
Destitute
Arms
Aside
Firearms
Power
Since
Scale
Militia
Would
Half
Scales
Preserved
World
Peace
Lays
Mischief
Use
Gun
Amendments
Strong
Dare
Prey
Ensue

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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.
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Prejudice will fall in a combat with interest.
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Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
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We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.
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Man did not enter society to be worse off, or to have fewer rights, but rather to have those rights better secured
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If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
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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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An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws.
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To believe that God created a plurality of worlds, at least as numerous as what we call stars, renders the Christian faith at once little and ridiculous and scatters it in the mind like feathers in the air.
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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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How necessary it is at all times to watch against the attempted encroachment of power, and to prevent its running to excess.
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But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain.
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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 Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.
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Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
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Liberty cannot be purchased by a wish.
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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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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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A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
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Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King and there ought to be no other.
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