Tom Paine Quotes

Tom Paine was a great American visionary. His book, Common Sense, sold a couple of hundred thousand copies in a population of four or five million. That means it was a best seller for years. People were thoughtful then. Hope is one thing. But you need to have hope with thought. ~ Studs Terkel

Tom Paine has almost no influence on present-day thinking in the United States because he is unknown to the average citizen. Perhaps I might say right here that this is a national loss and a deplorable lack of understanding concerning the man who first proposed and first wrote those impressive words, 'the United States of America.'

But it is hardly strange.

Paine's teachings have been debarred from schools everywhere and his views of life misrepresented until his memory is hidden in shadows, or he is looked upon as of unsound mind.

We never had a sounder intelligence in this Republic. He was the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible. Where Washington performed Paine devised and wrote. The deeds of one in the Weld were matched by the deeds of the other with his pen.

Washington himself appreciated Paine at his true worth. Franklin knew him for a great patriot and clear thinker. He was a friend and confidant of Jefferson, and the two must often have debated the academic and practical phases of liberty.

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. Although the present generation knows little of Paine's writings, and although he has almost no influence upon contemporary thought, Americans of the future will justly appraise his work. I am certain of ~ Thomas A. Edison

Tom Paine generally took a critical stance when dealing with religion and the church, but in 1775, in an essay entitled, "Thoughts on Defensive War" he wrote as follows: "In the barbarous ages of the world, men in genernal had no liberty. the strong governed the weak a will; till the coming of Christ there was no sucht thing as political freedom in any part of the world... The Romans held the world in slavery and were themselves slaves of their emperors... Wherefore political as well as spiritual freedom is the gift of God through Christ ~ Edmund A. Opitz

The neglected pioneer of one revolution, the honoured victim of another, brave to the point of folly, and as humane as he was brave, no man in his generation preached republican virtue in better English, nor lived it with a finer disregard of self.

{On American founding father and hero, Thomas Paine} ~ H.N. Brailsford

Better to keep it in the old heads, where no one can see it or suspect it. We are all bits and pieces of history and literature and international law. Byron, Tom Paine, Machiavelli, or Christ, it's here. And the hour's late. And the war's begun. And we are out here, and the city is there, all wrapped up in its own coat of a thousand colors ... All we want to do is keep the knowledge we think we will need intact and safe. We're not out to incite or anger anyone yet. For if we are destroyed, the knowledge is dead, perhaps for good ... Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end. It's not pleasant, but then we're not in control, we're the odd minority crying in the wilderness. When the war's over, perhaps we can be of some use in the world. ~ Ray Bradbury

How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin had walked. ~ Burl Ives

My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse. ~ John Quincy Adams

Paine suffered then, as now he suffers not so much because of what he wrote as from the misinterpretations of others...

He disbelieved the ancient myths and miracles taught by established creeds. But the attacks on those creeds - or on persons devoted to them - have served to darken his memory, casting a shadow across the closing years of his life.

When Theodore Roosevelt termed Tom Paine a 'dirty little atheist' he surely spoke from lack of understanding. It was a stricture, an inaccurate charge of the sort that has dimmed the greatness of this eminent American. But the true measure of his stature will yet be appreciated. The torch which he handed on will not be extinguished. If Paine had ceased his writings with 'The Rights of Man' he would have been hailed today as one of the two or three outstanding figures of the Revolution. But 'The Age of Reason' cost him glory at the hands of his countrymen - a greater loss to them than to Tom Paine.

I was always interested in Paine the inventor. He conceived and designed the iron bridge and the hollow candle; the principle of the modern central draught burner. The man had a sort of universal genius. He was interested in a diversity of things; but his special creed, his first thought, was liberty.

Traducers have said that he spent his last days drinking in pothouses. They have pictured him as a wicked old man coming to a sorry end. But I am persuaded that Paine must have looked with magnanim ~ Thomas A. Edison

Each man too is a tyrant in tendency, because he would impose his idea on others; and their trick is their natural defence. Jesuswould absorb the race; but Tom Paine or the coarsest blasphemer helps humanity by resisting this exuberance of power. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The left no longer stands for common sense, as it did in the days of Tom Paine. ~ Christopher Lasch

All this will come as a surprise to modern Internet users who may assume that today's social-media environment is unprecedented. But many of the ways in which we share, consume, and manipulate information, even in the Internet era, build upon habits and conventions that date back centuries. ~ Tom Standage

Excuses tell me two things about a person; they aren't honest with themselves, or others, and they believe I can't see they are lying to both of us - Tom too tall Cunningham ~ Tom Cunningham

My dad was an incredibly brave man, completely dedicated to his family, with a love for all. If I could be half the dad he was, to my children, then that will be an achievement in itself. He died 14 months exactly to the start of the 2012 Olympics. I hope he will be watching and waving his big union jack in London from somewhere else. I love you so much dad. ~ Tom Daley

I've got no interest in educating or instructing people. ~ Tom Stoppard

I'd love to be in a period drama, though my dream role is to be in a film with Ray Winstone and Tom Hardy. ~ Lauren Socha

Careerism: the self-centered philosophy of governing to win the next election above all else. ~ Tom Coburn

I wouldn't trade my career with anybody's. I'd trade a few movies with Tom Hanks - 'Apollo 13' and 'Forrest Gump' - but other than that, I love my career. ~ John Travolta

It's taken me a white to get here, but in a way, it feels more pleasing, because I've had periods that haven't been so good, had so much work or had too many opportunities... or I missed out on them or something; for whatever reason, the train came into the station and passed me by or I was late for it or something. So I feel really proud, I suppose, that it's taken this long and I stuck at it. It's a very competitive business and very uncertain. I mean, you don't know what's around the corner. It could be everything, or it could be nothing. And I sort of stuck at it, and you keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you've climbed a mountain. ~ Tom Hiddleston

Well, I guess the sexual abuse by Mel Phillips in a sense, he had a fetish for feet. He used to play with my feet and other kids' feet, and that was his thing. ~ Tom Cole

You know that African proverb 'When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground'? When Alice dies," Tom said, "it will be like a library burning. ~ Marja Mills

I don't discuss works in progress ... ~ Tom Clancy

We all borrow and steal and copy from each other, and that's the way I think people get inspired. ~ Tom Green

There's something majestic about a 30-pound Chinook salmon roasted and served whole - people get excited when you present it with the head and tail on. It has beautifully browned skin and extraordinary bright red flesh when you cut into it. ~ Tom Douglas

I don't put much faith in the political system because it's a question of how are you going to run capitalism, not how are we going to develop a different system to capitalism. ~ Tom Hodgkinson

What is grace? I'm not certain; all I know is that my heart felt like a spike, and then, in that room, it opened and felt like an umbrella. ~ Tom Junod

Donald Trump tweeted out to the world a quote allegedly from Senator Tom Coburn impugning my honesty. Within hours, Tom Coburn came out publicly and said, "That quote was an utter fabrication." ~ Ted Cruz

As we made love, our scars met,
grazing long enough for mine to say
"He tries to hide me,"
and for yours to reply
"I know I embarrass her."

"He never learned how to swim," whispered my scar.
"She got picked last in gym class,
then cried into her pillow," replied yours.

Just then, a huge wound opened in me.
You touched it. It closed.
I was filled, fully healed, and I knew
I would never be able not to love you. ~ Tom C. Hunley

I've got a quote for you, a good quote to describe Television ... In madness there is order. ~ Tom Verlaine

Boredom is only for people who do not know themselves or the wonders of life. ~ Tom Brown Jr.

I always liked the idea of the guitar - because cowboys played the guitar. ~ Tom Petty

It never occurred to me that I'd be typecast, although I was. And I never thought of the role as a commercial product, because I was ... well, I was playing this slightly messianic alien. He isn't violent, he doesn't get his leg over the girl, he doesn't steal, and he's rather wry, and adorable, and mysterious. He's lived for 900 years or something. He lives the life of the old patriarchs of the Old Testament. That's not commercial. He's special. ~ Tom Baker

It was quite a European war until 1917, when the Americans joined up. They don't have the same sense of the loss of innocence and the cataclysmic loss of life. A whole generation was wiped out. ~ Tom Hiddleston

I've always been a word guy, I like weird words and I like American slang and all that and words that are no longer being used ... I like to drag them out of the box and wave them around ... this is an interesting one, it's amazing how in addition to punctuation just a little pause in the wrong place can just completely transform the meaning of something. ~ Tom Waits

Every season, really, has their own chemistry. ~ Tom Ford

It is not hard to understand modern art. If it hangs on a wall it's a painting, and if you can walk around it it's a sculpture. ~ Tom Stoppard

You see, the lives of servants are not lived by clocks, but by the ringing of their masters' bells. ~ Tom Angleberger

Once upon a time there were three kittens, and their names were Mitten, Tom Kitten, and Moppet. They had dear little fur coats of their own; and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust. ~ Beatrix Potter

Growth is the goal, and that goal is never complete - art must be in constant change. ~ Tom Wesselmann

Tom Lehrer line - "Life is like a sewer: What you get out of it depends on what you put into it"112 - and a promise that if they put real effort into the exercises, he will help them. ~ Eric Schmidt

Minds were made for blowing. ~ Tom Robbins

I don't like listening to records a lot after they're done. There's just no real nourishment there for me. ~ Tom Waits

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. ~ Thomas Paine

SEPTIMUS: My lady, I was alone with my thoughts in the gazebo, when Mrs Chater ran me to ground, and I being in such a passion, in an agony of unrelieved desire
LADY CROOM: Oh ... !
SEPTIMUS:
I thought in my madness that the Chater with her skirts over her head would give me the momentary illusion of the happiness to which I dared not put a face.
(Pause.)
LADY CROOM: I do not know when I have received a more unusual compliment, Mr Hodge. I hope I am more than a match for Mrs Chater with her head in a bucket. Does she wear drawers?
SEPTIMUS: She does.
LADY CROOM: Yes, I have heard that drawers are being worn now. It is unnatural for women to be got up like jockeys. I cannot approve. ~ Tom Stoppard

At our table in the corner by the window, huddled around a flame in a red glass, all of us, body to body to body to body. The touch that proves you're not alone, that someone else is there. ~ Tom Spanbauer

I still get weirded out when people recognise me. ~ Tom Hopper

Real love is strange and unchangeable… but also somewhat constant. ~ Tom Hiddleston

Well, sugar," she said, limping off, "don't be too hard on yourself. Now and again it's okay to let yourself off the hook."
But that was the trouble, wasn't it? Letting himself off the hook had been his way of life. ~ Tom Franklin

You would think that when someone accepts a position with a company, they would assume that their life will be better off because they have that job rather than a different one. ~ Tom Rath

No great manager or leader ever fell from heaven, its learned not inherited. ~ Tom Northup

I could spend the whole afternoon telling you about him, but it's not gonna do much good, is it? You never smelled his hair after he just got out of the bath, or carried him from the car after he'd fallen asleep on the way home, or heard the way he laughed when someone tickled him. So you'll just have to take my word for it: He was a great kid and he made you glad to be alive. ~ Tom Perrotta

I dress for the occasion. I like Tom Ford for more formal, especially his suits, and I wear a lot of Under Armour for my athletic gear. I also love Rag & Bone. ~ Tom Brady

The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and places the Christian devil above him. It is he, according to the absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator in the Garden Eden, and steals from Him His favorite creature, man, and at last obliges Him to beget a son, and put that son to death, to get man back again; and this the priests of the Christian religion call redemption. ~ Thomas Paine

Truth without love doesn't work. Some people use the truth like a weapon. They don't tell the truth; they aim it. The truth sometimes hurts, but it doesn't have to maim, kill, or destroy. As ~ Tom Holladay

Chekhov was capable of casually tossing off deplorable comments in his letters, combined with a very modern anger against anti-Semitism. ~ Tom Stoppard

Complacency makes one as guilty as those who destroy the Earth. ~ Tom Brown, Jr.