Thomas Paine Quotes
When I reflect on the pompous titles bestowed on unworthy men, I feel an indignity that instructs me to despise the absurdity. The Honourable plunderer of his country, or the Right Honourable murderer of mankind, create such a contrast of ideas as exhibit a monster rather than a man. Virtue is inflamed at the violation, and sober reason calls it nonsense.
Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, British American Political Philosopher, Reflections on Titles, 1774
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He warns particularly of politicians who believe their own lies.
This Puritanical point of view, has always characterized a significant segment of American society. It is responsible for the rather limited pomp and circumstances, ceremony and protocol of American politics compared with most of the rest of the world. Ironically, when Adams later became President, he thought that America had gone too far and needed more formality and elegance—especially in the treatment of the Presidency. He was then opposed by most who preferred his earlier view and that of his opponent, Thomas Jefferson.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910
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".
