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Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.

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
Defence
Diminish
Commerce
Patriotism
Military
Spirit
Life
Diminishes

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There is something in corruption which, like a jaundiced eye, transfers the color of itself to the object it looks upon, and sees everything stained and impure.
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For freemen like brothers agree With one spirit endured, they one friendship pursued, And their temple was Liberty Tree
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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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My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
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Government is not a trade which any man or body of men has a right to set up and exercise for his own emolument, but is altogether a trust, in right of those by whom that trust is delegated, and by whom it is always resumable. It has of itself no rights they are altogether duties.
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Man is not the enemy of man, but through the medium of a false system of Government. Instead, therefore, of exclaiming against the ambition of kings, the exclamation should be directed against the principle of such governments and instead of seeking to reform the individual, the wisdom of a nation should apply itself to reform the system.
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I fear not, I see not reason for fear. In the end we will be the victors. For though at times the flame of liberty may cease to shine, the ember will never expire.
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Natural rights are those which always appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the rights of others.
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It will be proper to take a review of the several sources from which governments have arisen, and on which they have been founded.
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It is important that we should never lose sight of this distinction. We must not confuse the peoples with their governments.
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Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.
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We hold the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty is far superior to that of supplying the invented wants of courtly extravagance.
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Ah, reader, put thy trust in thy creator, and thou wilt be safe but if thou trustest to the book called the scriptures thou trustest to the rotten staff of fable and falsehood.
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The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
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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.
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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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But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
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... a thirst for power is the natural disease of monarchy.
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The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing.
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