"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." - Thomas Paine
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. - Paul of Tarsus
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine
My mind is my own church.
Thomas Paine
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
Thomas Paine
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
Thomas Paine
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
Thomas Paine
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
Thomas Paine
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
Thomas Paine
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas Paine
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.
Thomas Paine
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.
Thomas Paine
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
Thomas Paine
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.
Thomas Paine
Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them.
Thomas Paine
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
Thomas Paine
But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
Thomas Paine
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
Thomas Paine
Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them.
Thomas Paine
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine
He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.
Thomas Paine
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
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
Thomas Paine
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
Thomas Paine
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.
Thomas Paine
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Thomas Paine
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Thomas Paine
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.
Thomas Paine
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
Thomas Paine
It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.
Thomas Paine
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
Thomas Paine
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.
Thomas Paine
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.
Thomas Paine
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
Thomas Paine
It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
Thomas Paine
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Thomas Paine
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
Thomas Paine
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Thomas Paine
My mind is my own church.
Thomas Paine
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
Thomas Paine
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
Thomas Paine
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
Thomas Paine
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
Thomas Paine
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
Thomas Paine
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
Thomas Paine
That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
Thomas Paine
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
Thomas Paine
The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.
Thomas Paine
The greatest remedy for anger is delay.
Thomas Paine
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
Thomas Paine
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Thomas Paine
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
Thomas Paine
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
Thomas Paine
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Thomas Paine
The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.
Thomas Paine
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Thomas Paine
The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.
Thomas Paine
There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.
Thomas Paine
These are the times that try men's souls.
Thomas Paine
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Thomas Paine
Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine
'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Thomas Paine
Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
Thomas Paine
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.
Thomas Paine
To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
Thomas Paine
Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.
Thomas Paine
War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.
Thomas Paine
We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.
Thomas Paine
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Thomas Paine
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Thomas Paine
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Thomas Paine
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Thomas Paine
"Dead IRS agents don't collect taxes; they just burn in hell." ---anonymous
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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"I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. . . Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." - Amos, also famously requoted by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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Little Sally Skank went to the bank
And talked on her phone the whole time.
She took forever, and didn't care whether
She made everyone mad in the line.
Including a guy who was mentally unstable, and happened to have a knife, and cut off her head and killed all the children. I'm still working on the end of that one.
- Jeff Smith-Luedke
– Jeffrey Zaslow, in The Wall Street Journal
He's up in my 'bid-ness'..... which is ebonics for 'being in my face and annoying the bajeezus out of me.' - Michael Scott, The Office
If you are lucky enough to be Irish, you are lucky enough. - Irish Proverb
You never bet enough on a winning dog. - Bookmaker at Queen's Park, Belfast
We Irish are too poetical to be poets; we are a nation of brilliant failures, but we are the greatest talkers since the Greeks. - Oscar Wilde
No cause is utterly lost so long as it can inspire heroic devotion. No country is lost whose sons love her better than their lives. - Abbe Mac-Geoghegan Chaplain of the Irish Brigade, which fought with the kings of France in the early 1700s
I'll complain if I want to. It's comforting. - The Doctor to Seven of Nine, "One" STVoyager
For humans touch can connect you to an object in avery personal way ... make it seem more real. - Picard to Data, on touching the Phoenix ST First Contact
I've found that when it comes to doing what's best for you, you humanoids have the distressing habit of doing the exact opposite. - Odo to Sisko, "Homefront" STDS9
It can be argued that a human is ultimately the sum of his experiences. - Sisko to wormhole alien "Emissary" STDS9
"There is, I think, humor here which does not translate well from English into Sanity." ~ Sanya, Changes by Jim Butcher
In a couple hours’ talk, an Englishman will give you his notions on trade, politics, the crops, the hounds or the weather. It requires a long sitting and a bottle of wine at the least to induce him to laugh.
In two hours over a pipe, a German will be quite ready to let loose the easy floodgates of his sentiment, and confide to you the many secrets of his soft heart. In two hours a Frenchman will say a hundred and twenty smart, witty, brilliant, false things, and will care for you not one single straw.
And in two hours an Irishman will have allowed his jovial humor to unbutton, and gambolled and frolicked to his heart’s content.
Which of these, putting Monsieur out of the question, will stand by his friend with the most constancy and maintain his steady wish to serve him? That is a question which the Englishman is disposed to decide in his own favor. But it is clear that for a stranger, the Irish ways are the pleasantest, for here he is at once made happy and at home. - William Makepeace Thackeray
Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success. - Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism
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"I turned my home state of Florida into the Land of Xanth." -Piers Anthony
"One reason I don't suffer Writer's Block is that I don't wait on the muse, I summon it at need." -Piers Anthony
"That most dangerous of opponents: the one who took pains to comprehend the position of his adversary." -Piers Anthony
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. - Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
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"The irrationality of a thing is not an argument against its existence, rather, a condition of it."
– Friedrich Nietzsche
"A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses. It is an idea that possesses the mind."
– Robert Oxton Bolton
"It is better to be violent if there is violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence."
– Mahatma Gandhi
"There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."
– Voltaire
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves."
– Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evil doer; Nothing more difficult than understanding him."
– Fyodor Dostoevsky
"No man or woman who tries to pursue an ideal in his or her own way is without enemies."
– Daisy Bates
"I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury...fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils."
– Euripides
"No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities."
– Christian Nestell Bovee
"To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly."
– Benjamin Franklin
"Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it."
– Ayn Rand
"A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell."
– Thomas Fuller
"Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles..."
– Mark Twain
"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
– H.L. Mencken
"For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible."
– Stuart Chase
"Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure."
– Tacitus
"Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."
– Helen Keller
If one could only teach the English how to talk and the Irish how to listen, society would be quite civilized. - Oscar Wilde
May you have the hindsight to know where you've been and the foresight to know where you're going and the insight to know when you're going to far. - Irish toast
“If you can distinguish between good advice and bad advice, then you don’t need advice.”
– Van Roy’s Second Law in Murphy’s Law: Book Three (1982)
"When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." - *James
Dale Davidson*, National Taxpayers Union
"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." – *Tacitus*