Thomas Paine citáty

strana 7

„Nejsilnější zbraní proti omylům všeho druhu je rozum.“

„Dlouhodobý zvyk nepovažovat věc za špatnou jí dává povrchní zdání správnosti.“

„Nejlepším lékem na hněv je odklad.“

„Představa dědičných zákonodárců je stejně absurdní jako dědičný matematik, či dědičný mudrc, stejně absurdní jako dědičný poeta laureatus.“

„Ješitný je tak pln sám sebe, že v něm není místa pro nic jiného.“

„Nezávislost je moje štěstí a já vidím věci takové, jaké jsou, bez ohledu na místo nebo osobu; mou zemí je svět a mým náboženstvím je konat dobro.“

„Mým náboženstvím je činit dobro.“

„Nic nepomáhá vítězství rozumu tolik, jako klid těch, kteří mu slouží.“

„Pravdě více škodí horlivost jejích zastánců než nevraživost jejích odpůrců.“

„Pravda trpí často více horlivostí svých zastánců než nevraživostí odpůrců.“

„Nárok na lidská práva vchází v platnost při narození.“

„Hádat se s někým, kdo se vzdal použití a autority rozumu a jehož filozofie spočívá v opovržení lidstvem, je jako podávat lék mrtvému nebo se snažit obrátit ateistu pomocí Písma.“

„Žádné místo na Zemi by nemohlo být tak šťastné jako Amerika.“

„Mírná povaha slušného člověka láká rváče; na druhé straně zbraně ho stejně jako zákony zastrašují a drží v patřičném respektu, a jsou zárukou pořádku stejně jako majetku.“

“Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher.”

“Every thing that is right or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'tis time to part.”

“Submission is wholly a vassalage term, repugnant to the dignity of freedom, and an echo of the language used at the Conquest.”

“The genuine mind of man, thirsting for its native home, society contemns the gewgaws that separate him from it. Titles are like circles drawn by the magician's wand, to contract the sphere of man's felicity.”

“The mind of the nation was acted upon by a higher stimulus than what the consideration of persons could inspire, and sought a higher conquest than could be produced by the downfall of an enemy.”

“Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off.”

“Whether, then, all ought not immediately to discontinue and renounce it, with grief and abhorrence? Should not every society bear testimony against it, and account obstinate persisters in it bad men, enemies to their country, and exclude them from fellowship; as they often do for much lesser faults?”

“You will do me the justice to remember, that I have always strenuously supported the Right of every Man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.”

“It is pleasant to observe by what regular gradation we surmount the force of local prejudice as we enlarge our acquaintance with the world.”

“Had I served my God as faithful as I have served my king, he would not thus have forsaken me in my old age.”

“Contemplating the universe, the whole system of creation, in this point of light, we shall discover, that all that which is called natural philosophy is properly a divine study— It is the study of God through his works — It is the best study, by which we can arrive at a knowledge of the existence, and the only one by which we can gain a glimpse of his perfection.
Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not written or printed books, but the Scripture called the Creation.”

“It is the nature of conquest to turn everything upside down.”

“Eloquence may strike the ear, but the language of poverty strikes the heart; the first may charm like music, but the second alarms like a knell.”

“While the characters of men are forming, as is always the case in revolutions, there is a reciprocal suspicion, and a disposition to misinterpret each other; and even parties directly opposite in principle will sometimes concur in pushing forward the same movement with very different views, and with the hopes of its producing very different consequences. A great deal of this may be discovered in this embarrassed affair, and yet the issue of the whole was what nobody had in view.”

“I have no wish to believe on that subject.”

“Religion has two principal enemies, fanaticism and infidelity, or that which is called atheism. The first requires to be combated by reason and morality, the other by natural philosophy.”

“Despotic government supports itself by abject civilization, in which debasement of the human mind, and wretchedness in the mass of the people, are the chief criterions. Such governments consider man merely as an animal; that the exercise of intellectual faculty is not his privilege; that he has nothing to do with the laws but to obey them; and they politically depend more upon breaking the spirit of the people by poverty, than they fear enraging it by desperation.”

“The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.”

“Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe.”

“All religions are in their nature kind and benign, and united with principles of morality. They could not have made proselytes at first by professing anything that was vicious, cruel, persecuting, or immoral. Like everything else, they had their beginning; and they proceeded by persuasion, exhortation, and example. How then is it that they lose their native mildness, and become morose and intolerant?”

“It is only by the exercise of reason that man can discover God.”

“But the chief design of this paper is not to disprove it, which many have sufficiently done; but to entreat Americans to consider.”

“I bid you farewell, sincerely wishing, that as men and christians, ye may always fully and uninterruptedly enjoy every civil and religious right.”

“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.”

“Whether I have too little sense to see, or too much to be imposed upon; whether I have too much or too little pride, or of anything else, I leave out of the question; but certain it is, that what is called monarchy, always appears to me a silly, contemptible thing. I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal of bustle and fuss, and a wonderful air of seeming solemnity; but when, by any accident, the curtain happens to be open — and the company see what it is, they burst into laughter.”

“It is already on the wane, eclipsed by the enlarging orb of reason, and the luminous revolutions of America and France.”

“The difference between a republican and a courtier with respect to monarchy, is that the one opposes monarchy, believing it to be something; and the other laughs at it, knowing it to be nothing.”

“If Jesus Christ was the being which those Mythologists tell us he was, and that he came into this world to suffer, which is a word they sometimes use instead of to die, the only real suffering he could have endured, would have been to live. His existence here was a state of exilement or transportation from Heaven, and the way back to his original country was to die. In fine, everything in this strange system is the reverse of what it pretends to be.”

“No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it….. When I am told that the Koran was written in Heaven and brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes too near the same kind of hearsay evidence and second-hand authority as the former (Book of Exodus). I did not see the angel myself, and, therefore, I have a right not to believe it.”