A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.

— Thomas Paine

A hereditary monarch is as absurd a position as a hereditary doctor or mathematician.

— Thomas Paine

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

— Thomas Paine

All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.

— Thomas Paine

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

— Thomas Paine

A man may write himself out of reputation when nobody else can do it.

— Thomas Paine

An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

— Thomas Paine

And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge of a wife, so any prepossession in favor of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.

— Thomas Paine

A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue but moderation in principle is always a vice.

— Thomas Paine

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

— Thomas Paine