I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business if little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
Thomas Paine Quotes
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Time makes more converts than reason.
The case, however, is that the Bible will not bear examination in any part of it, which it would do if it was the Word of God. Those who most believe it are those who know least about it, and priests always take care to keep the inconsistent and contradictory parts out of sight.
For my own part, my belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit me to believe, that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and contradictory, can be his work. I can write a better book myself.
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.
‘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.
Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. […]
The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authority; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion.
