Thomas Paine Quotes

And my haunting instinct that somehow good was not merely a tool to be used, but a relic to be guarded, like the goods from Crusoe's ship--even that had been the wild whisper of something originally wise, for, according to Christianity, we were indeed the survivors of a wreck, the crew of a golden ship that had gone down before the beginning of the world.

Guilt is what separates humans from animals.

Humanity is lost because people have abandoned using their conscience as their compass.

I'm very interested in good and evil and the moral natures of people.

Why does God endow us with compassion?

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

The Natural Law which God has written into our beings cannot be entirely eradicated, but it can be gravely deformed, leading to distortion of consciousness and conscience, and hence our actions.

Conscience is God present in man.

The law of God, and also the way to life, is written in our hearts: It lieth in no man's supposition and knowing, nor in any historical opinion, but in a good will and well-doing.

I like Jesus, I mean, I think he was a good guy.

I think that fiction is an excellent place for us to struggle with questions of good and evil, and humanity and inhumanity.

Good and evil. Right and wrong.Those are two fundamental opposing concepts that define the nature of humankind.

I think that when you're exploring themes of humanity and what defines a hero and what makes us our best self and what makes us our worst self, you're going to stumble into territories of societal issues and that kind of thing. Sometimes you have accidents where you're not trying, but then the opportunity just presents itself. and you lean into it.

'Ida' is about humanity, about guilt and forgiveness. It's not a film that deals with an issue as such. It's more universal.

There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

A man's at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.

Conscience is that candle of the Lord which was not quite put out.

The chief source of man's inhumanity to man seems to be the tribal limits of his sense of obligation to other men.

May the Almighty grant that the cause of truth, justice, and humanity, shall in no wise suffer at my hands.

Hatred toward any human being cannot exist in the same heart as love to God.

universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.