"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."

Paine, Thomas on Adversity
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"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

Paine, Thomas on Deeds and Good Deeds
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"Everything that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part."

Paine, Thomas on Democracy
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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."

Paine, Thomas on Emotions
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"We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in."

Paine, Thomas on Freedom
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

Paine, Thomas on Freedom
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"The final event to himself has been, that as he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick."

Paine, Thomas on Glory
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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."

Paine, Thomas on Government
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"Human nature is not of itself vicious."

Paine, Thomas on Human Nature
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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."

Paine, Thomas on Hypocrisy
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"It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe."

Paine, Thomas on Integrity
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"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."

Paine, Thomas on Liberty
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"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly."

Paine, Thomas on Appreciation
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"Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice."

Paine, Thomas on Moderation
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"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."

Paine, Thomas on Moderation
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"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."

Paine, Thomas on New Beginning
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"Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title."

Paine, Thomas on Nicknames
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"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'Tis dearness only that gives everything its value."

Paine, Thomas on Obstacles
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"The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

Paine, Thomas on Patriotism
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"When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary."

Paine, Thomas on Posterity
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"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."

Paine, Thomas on Purpose
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"It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry."

Paine, Thomas on Questions
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"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."

Paine, Thomas on Religion
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"Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad."

Paine, Thomas on Religion
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"The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection."

Paine, Thomas on Smile
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"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man."

Paine, Thomas on Belief
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"It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and whether we defeat the enemy in one battle, or by ;degrees, the consequences will be the same."

Paine, Thomas on Causes
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"A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men."

Paine, Thomas on Causes
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"Reputation is what men and women think of us. Character is what God and the angels know of us."

Paine, Thomas on Character
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"Character is much easier kept than recovered."

Paine, Thomas on Character
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"Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society."

Paine, Thomas on Suspicion
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"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."

Paine, Thomas on Thoughts and Thinking
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"When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."

Paine, Thomas on Thoughts and Thinking
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"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value."

Paine, Thomas on Value
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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."

Paine, Thomas on War
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"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

Paine, Thomas on Churches
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"My own mind is my own church."

Paine, Thomas on Churches
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"Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS -- our inferior one varies with the place."

Paine, Thomas on Citizenship
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"I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."

Paine, Thomas on Creeds
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"These are the times that try men's souls."

Paine, Thomas on Crisis
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