The voices / 145 fragments

Thomas Paine

1737 AD — 1809 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

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Historical source references

Letter to the Addressers
The American Crisis
Age of Reason
Cunning · anthology attribution: Thomas Paine
Moderation · anthology attribution: Thomas Paine
Obstinacy · anthology attribution: Thomas Paine
Passion · anthology attribution: Thomas Paine
Reputation · anthology attribution: Thomas Paine
Tears · anthology attribution: Thomas Paine
Page 6 · printed citation: Thomas Paine (1776)
Page 134 · printed citation: Thomas Paine (Age of Reason)
Page 196 · printed citation: Thomas Paine
Page 247 · printed citation: Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)
Page 24 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Avarice
Page 69 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Duty
Page 75 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Equality
Page 105 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Government
Page 141 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Kings
Page 262 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Title
Page 262 · printed citation: Thomas Paine · subject: Time

Archive entries

01c. 1773 AD

And the final event to himself [Mr. Burke] has been, that, as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.

Thomas Paine / quote

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02c. 1773 AD

These are the times that try men's souls.

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03c. 1773 AD

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again.

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04Undated

The animals to whom nature has given the faculty we call cunning know always when to use it, and use it wisely; but when man descends to cunning, he blunders and betrays.

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05Undated

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.

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06Undated

Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their suffering and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.

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07Undated

When the tongue or the pen is let loose in a frenzy of passion, it is the man, and not the subject, that becomes exhausted.

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08Undated

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

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09Undated

Tears may soothe the wounds they cannot heal.

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10Undated

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he, that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives anything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

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11Undated

(Speaking of future state) “Those who are neither good nor bad, or are too insignificant for notice, will be dropt entirely. This is my opinion. It is consistent with my idea of God’s justice, and with the reason that God has given me, and I gratefully know that He has given me a large share of that Divine gift”(!)

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12Undated

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

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13Undated

The Quakers have contracted themselves too much by leaving the works of God out of their system. Though I reverence their philanthropy, I can not help smiling at the conceit, that, if the taste of a Quaker could have been consulted at the creation, what a silent and drab-coloured creation it would have been! Not a flower would have blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird been permitted to sing.

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14Undated

Though avarice will preserve a man from being necessitously poor, it generally makes him too timorous to be wealthy.

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15Undated

The duty of man is not a wilderness of turnpike gates, through which he is to pass by tickets from one to the other. It is plain and simple, and consists but of two points: his duty to God, which every man must feel; and, with respect to his neighbor, to do as he would be done by.

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16Undated

All the religions known in the world are founded, so far as they relate to man, or the unity of man, as being all of one degree. Whether in heaven or in hell, or in whatever state man may be supposed to exist hereafter, the good and the bad are the only distinctions.

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17Undated

Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest, and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least.

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18Undated

One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings is, that nature disapproves it; otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass in place of a lion.

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19Undated

How impious is the title of "sacred majesty" applied to a worm, who, in the midst of his splendor, is crumbling into dust!

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20Undated

Time makes more converts than reason.

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21Undated

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

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22Undated

Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul.

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23Undated

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

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24Undated

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

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Thomas Paine

Archive entries

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Meditations

The Republic

Tao Te Ching