Quote

Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance.

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
Look
Early
Insolent
Looks
Mankind
Poisoned
Mind
Grow
Selected
Men
Rest
Reign
Grows
Obey
Upon
Minds
Born
Importance
Others
Soon

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The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.
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The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
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... a thirst for power is the natural disease of monarchy.
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Wrong cannot have a legal descendant.
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Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.
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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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Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the most improper to defend us.
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An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
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It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
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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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They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the understanding of the nation, the only thing that was beneficial to know, namely, that government is nothing more than a national association acting on the principles of society.
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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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A government on the principles on which constitutional governments arising out of society are established, cannot have the right of altering itself. If it had, it would be arbitrary. It might make itself what it pleased and wherever such a right is set up, it shows there is no constitution.
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