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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.

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
Even
Stretch
Always
Libertarian
Men
Leads
Laws
Dangerous
Liberty
Avidity
Law
Misinterpret
Best
Punish

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The United States of America will sound as pompously in the world or in history as The Kingdom of Great Britain.
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Truth never envelops itself in mystery, and the mystery in which it is at any time enveloped is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself.
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The representative system of government is calculated to produce the wisest laws, by collecting wisdom where it can be found.
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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 art of publicity is a black art but it has come to stay, and every year adds to its potency.
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One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
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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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In the progress of politics, as in the common occurrences of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we have travelled over, but frequently neglect to gather up experiences as we go.
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Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to bind me in all cases whatsoever to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?
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The right of voting for representatives , is the primary right by which other rights are protected.
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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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Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.
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Christianity is the strangest religion ever set up, for it committed a murder upon Jesus in order to redeem mankind from the sin of eating an apple.
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From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.
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The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.
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Civilization, or that which is so called, has operated two ways to make one part of society more affluent and the other part more wretched than would have been the lot of either in a natural state.
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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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All the religions known in the world are founded, so far as they relate to man or the unity of man, as being all of one degree. Whether in heaven or in hell, or in whatever state man may be supposed to exist hereafter, the good and the bad are the only distinctions.
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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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