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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.

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
Politics
Travelled
Forget
Gather
Common
Frequently
Life
Neglect
Experiences
Ground
Travel
Progress
Occurrences

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He who takes nature for his guide, is not easily beaten out of his argument
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It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
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From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom.
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Ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!
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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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The greatest characters the world has known, have rose on the democratic floor. Aristocracy has not been able to keep a proportionate pace with democracy.
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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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Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority perfect equality affords no temptation.
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That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
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The graceful pride of truth knows no extremes, and preserves, in every latitude of life, the right-angled character of man.
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Therefore we say that a lying Spirit has been in the mouth of the writers of the books of the Bible.
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Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
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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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If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
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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.
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Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title. The thing is perfectly harmless in itself, but it marks a sort of foppery in the human character, which degrades it.
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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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As my object was not myself, I set out with the determination, and happily with the disposition, of not being moved by praise or censure, friendship or calumny, nor of being drawn from my purpose by any personal altercation and the man who cannot do this, is not fit for a public character.
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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.
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I disbelieve all holy men and holy books.
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