Thomas Paine Quotes
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.
Paine, Thomas. "The American Crisis, No. I." Pennsylvania Journal, 19 Dec. 1776.
This extreme position illustrates how a politician, trying to defend a particular position can get carried away and lose rational sense of balance. The air we breath is free and quite valuable—essential really. The exercise of most of our political rights is without charge. Legitimate religions do not require payment.
Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), the two most influential pamphlets at the start of the American Revolution, and helped inspire the patriots in 1776 to declare independence from Great Britain. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights. Historian Saul K. Padover described him as "a corsetmaker by trade, a journalist by profession, and a propagandist by inclination".
