Paineisms

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• The Early bird may catch the worm
  But it is the second mouse that gets the cheese.

• Eat when your hungry
  Drink when your dry
  If you don't stop breathing
  you'll live till you die.

Quotes from Thomas Paine

• To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

• 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.

• A bad cause will never be supported by bad means and bad men.

• A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

• 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.

• An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.

• Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.

• But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.

• Character is much easier kept than recovered.

• 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.
  

• From such beginnings of governments, what could be expected, but a continual system of war and extortion?

• Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

• He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.

• Human nature is not of itself vicious.

• 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.

• 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.

• If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

• If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately.

• 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.

• 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.

• It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.

• Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

• Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

• My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

• My mind is my own church.

• Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.

• Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.

• 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.

• That government is best which governs least.

• That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.

• 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.

• The greatest remedy for anger is delay.

• The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

• The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.

• The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.

• The Vatican is a dagger in the heart of Italy.

• The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.

• 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.

• Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

• '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.

• Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.

• 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.

• 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.

• Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.

• War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen and unsupposed circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end. It has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.

• We can only reason from what is; we can reason on actualities, but not on possibilities.

• We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

• What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.

• When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

• When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

• Lead, follow, or get out of the way.