Let the assemblies be annual, with a President only. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. Every day convinces us of its necessity. Wherefore, the present time is the true time for establishing it. The hankering which the Jews had for the idolatrous customs of the Heathens, is something exceedingly unaccountable; but so it was, that laying hold of the misconduct of Samuel's two sons, who were entrusted with some secular concerns, they came in an abrupt and clamorous manner to Samuel, saying, Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways, now make us a king to judge us like all the other nations. Franklin, when that statesman first went to England as agent for Pennsylvania, and by his advice Paine came to America, in 1774, and at once employed his powerful pen in the cause.
If we omit it now, some Massanello may hereafter arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes, may collect together the desperate and discontented, and by assuming to themselves the powers of government, may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge. And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of king-craft, as priest-craft, in withholding the scripture from the public in Popish countries. He sought and obtained an interview with Dr. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. These Thomas Paine Quotes are listed chronologically and there are links to more after this time period at the bottom of the page.
That is not the correct answer. Philip Foner used the figure in his authoritative The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine, and to this day some textbook authors prefer the largest available number. All of this comes mostly from his 3 part book -- The Age of Reason 1794- 1807, released in separate parts. A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! So Samuel called unto the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set on foot for the promotion of idolatry. Wherefore, what occasion is there for your political testimony if you fully believe what it contains: And the very publishing it proves, that either, ye do not believe what ye profess, or have not virtue enough to practise what ye believe.
But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but independance, i. Militiamen who, already tired of the war, were straggling from the army, returned. It combines scathing criticism of claims to authority for the bible by religious authorities, with an expression of confidence in a divinely ordered world, revealed in nature through the exercise of reason, that drew heavily on the lectures he had attended in London prior to leaving for America, given by James Ferguson and Benjamin Martin. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight. The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflexion. No political leaders attended; no one, it seems, gave a eulogy This is a quote from a larger work that can be found at This is from the official site of Thomas Paine National Historical Association who's mission it is promote and preserve the legacy of Thomas Paine.
Following the revolution, Paine moved back across the Atlantic and by 1791 was busy publishing a new, politically-charged pamphlet in that upon reaching America would link the names of Jefferson and Paine. The Tories dared not have assembled offensively, had they known that their lives, by that act, were forfeited to the laws of the state. The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once, viz. Paine will be played by amateur actor and Vietnam War veteran Kevin Connelly, experienced at playing Paine. British military success in the late summer and early fall of 1776 made the choice easier still.
As to usurpation, no man will be so hardy as to defend it; and that William the Conqueror was an usurper is a fact not to be contradicted. Smith, April 26, 1791, in 20:290. A national debt is a national bond; and when it bears no interest, is in no case a grievance. But equally, no generation is free to act unjustly. Religion For a man so frequently called an atheist, Paine shows a remarkable confidence in the divine order of the creation. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters. As to government matters, it is not in the power of Britain to do this continent justice: The business of it will soon be too weighty, and intricate, to be managed with any tolerable degree of convenience, by a power, so distant from us, and so very ignorant of us; for if they cannot conquer us, they cannot govern us.
Yet Paine claimed never to have read Locke. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. V - The American Crisis 1776 - 1783 Web Source: Quoted Document: Founding Father Quote The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof.
We shall then see our object, and our ears will be legally shut against the schemes of an intriguing, as well, as a cruel enemy. Should an independancy be brought about by the first of those means, we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. Wherefore, in our present state we may quarrel on for ever. Cheetham, 1809, The Life of Thomas Paine,London. Although he does not make the point, they seem to be more a matter of administration, and that is in keeping with his essentially consensual view of the formal exercise of responsibilities by those invested with the confidence of the nation as a whole.