Thomas Paine

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

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Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and the angels know of us.

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It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

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It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

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That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.

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He is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.

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Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

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Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

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When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

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To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.

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