Thomas Paine quotes - Page : 8

" When Bonaparte returned from Italy he called on Mr. Paine and invited him to dinner: in the course of his rapturous address to him he declared that a statue of gold ought to be erected to him in every city in the universe, assuring him that he always slept with his book "Rights of Man" under his pillow and conjured him to honor him with his correspondence and advice. This anecdote is only related as a fact. Of the sincerity of the compliment, those may judge who know Bonaparte's principles best. " # Procreation # Books - Reading # Compliments

" I never tire of reading Tom Paine. " # Books - Reading # Pain # Perseverance

" I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles. " # Politicians and Politics # Despotism # Constitutions

" Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it. " # Quotations

" If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. " # Quotations

" As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a species of atheism; a sort of religious denial of God. It professes to believe in a man rather than in God. It is a compound made up chiefly of man-ism with but little deism, and is as near to atheism as twilight is to darkness. " # Quotations

" The story of the whale swallowing Jonah . . . borders greatly on the marvelous; but it would have approached nearer to the idea of miracle if Jonah had swallowed the whale. " # Quotations

" Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. " # Ignorance

" "What is it the Bible teaches us? - rapine, cruelty, and murder. What is it the Testament teaches us? - to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith. " # Idols # Marriage # Faith

" Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. " # Books - Reading # Writers and Writing # Wickedness