Top 500 Thomas Paine Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Struggle Quotes, Victory Quotes, Quotes About War, 4th Of July Quotes

2. “The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Wisdom Quotes, Positive Short Quotes, Kindness Quotes, Quotes About Humanity, Philosophy Quotes

3. “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Boldness Quotes, Truth Quotes, Honesty Quotes

4. “The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Education Quotes, Enlightenment Quotes, Mind Quotes

5. “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Medicine Quotes, 4th Of July Quotes

6. “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Time Quotes, Peace Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes, Veteran's Day Quotes

7. “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Never Give Up Quotes, Resilience Quotes, Grit Quotes, Victory Quotes, Being Strong Quotes

8. “Character is much easier kept than recovered.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Integrity Quotes, Quotes About War

9. “The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Quotes About War

10. “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in the crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Resilience Quotes, Military Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes, Country Quotes

11. “It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Quotes About Numbers

12. “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Mental Strength Quotes

13. “Man must go back to nature for information.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Environment Quotes

14. “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.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Make A Difference Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Freedom Quotes, Country Quotes

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

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Character Quotes

16. “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: 4th Of July Quotes

17. “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Veteran's Day Quotes

18. “Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.”

— Thomas Paine

19. “The balance of power is the scale of peace.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Quotes About Balance

20. “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

— Thomas Paine

21. “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

— Thomas Paine

22. “My country is wherever liberty lives.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Quotes on Liberty, Country Quotes

23. “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Appreciation Quotes

24. “In Deism our reason and our belief become happily united. The wonderful structure of the universe, and everything we behold in the system of the creation, prove to us, far better than books can do, the existence of a God, and at the same time proclaim His attributes.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Book Quotes

25. “We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”

— Thomas Paine

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

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Character Quotes

27. “Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.”

— Thomas Paine

28. “The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.”

— Thomas Paine

29. “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

30. “The greatest tyrannies are always perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes.”

— Thomas Paine

31. “The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun.”

— Thomas Paine

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

— Thomas Paine

33. “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing 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.”

— Thomas Paine

34. “When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Patriotic Quotes

35. “A Democracy is the most vile form of government there is!”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Government Quotes

36. “Youth is the seed time of good habits, as well in nations as in individuals.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Habit Quotes

37. “Men should not petition for rights, but take them.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Rights Quotes

38. “Christianity is the strangest religion ever set up, for it committed a murder upon Jesus in order to redeem mankind from the sin of eating an apple.”

— Thomas Paine

39. “Nothing, they say is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying.”

— Thomas Paine

40. “Our greatest enemies, the ones we must fight most often, are within.”

— Thomas Paine

41. “Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.”

— Thomas Paine

42. “I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.”

— Thomas Paine

43. “The Deist needs none of those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for what can be a greater miracle than the creation itself, and his own existence?”

— Thomas Paine

44. “Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it.”

— Thomas Paine

45. “It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.”

— Thomas Paine

46. “Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

— Thomas Paine

47. “As to the book called the bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions and a history of bad times and bad men.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Book Quotes

48. “It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.”

— Thomas Paine

Featured in: Justice Quotes, Evil Quotes

49. “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”

— Thomas Paine

50. “My mind is my own church.”

— Thomas Paine