The Philosopher
Thomas Paine
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- English-born American, French Revolutionary
- Period:
- Age of Enlightenment
The synopsis
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain, February 9, 1737 – June 8, 1809) was an English-born American Founding Father, French Revolutionary, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. His pamphlets *Common Sense* (1776) and *The American Crisis* (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the American Revolution. Paine advanced Enlightenment-era arguments for human rights that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Thetford, Norfolk, Paine immigrated to the British American colonies in 1774 with the help of Benjamin Franklin, arriving in time to participate in the American Revolution. Virtually every American Patriot read his 47-page pamphlet *Common Sense*, which catalyzed the call for independence from Great Britain. He followed that breakthrough with the pro-independence *American Crisis* pamphlet series. Paine returned to Britain in 1787 and wrote *Rights of Man* (1791) to rebut critics of the French Revolution, particularly the Anglo-Irish conservative writer Edmund Burke. His authorship of the tract led to a trial and conviction *in absentia* in England in 1792 for the crime of seditious libel.
The British government of William Pitt the Younger was worried by the possibility that the French Revolution might spread to Britain and had begun suppressing works that espoused radical philosophies. Paine's work advocated the right of the people to overthrow their government and was therefore targeted with a writ for his arrest issued in early 1792. Paine fled to France in September, despite not being able to speak French, but he was quickly elected to the French National Convention. The Girondins regarded him as an ally; consequently, the Montagnards regarded him as an enemy, especially Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier, the powerful president of the Committee of General Security. In December 1793, Vadier arrested Paine and took him to Luxembourg Prison in Paris. He completed the first part of *The Age of Reason* just before he was arrested. Mark Philp notes that "In prison Paine managed to produce (and to convey to Daniel Isaac Eaton, the radical London publisher) a dedication for *The Age of Reason* and a new edition of the *Rights of Man* with a new preface." James Monroe used his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794.
Paine became notorious because of his pamphlets and attacks on his former allies, who he felt had betrayed him. In *The Age of Reason* and other writings, he advocated Deism, promoted reason and freethought, and argued against religion in general and Christian doctrine in particular. In 1796, he published a bitter open letter to George Washington, whom he denounced as an incompetent general and a hypocrite. He published the pamphlet *Agrarian Justice* (1797), discussing the origins of property and introducing the concept of a guaranteed minimum income through a one-time inheritance tax on landowners. In 1802, he returned to the U.S. He died on June 8, 1809. Only six people attended his funeral, as he had been ostracized for his ridicule of Christianity and his attacks on the nation's leaders.
The works
Common Sense
The American Crisis
Rights of Man
The Age of Reason
Agrarian Justice
The quotes
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace.
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
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.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
'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.
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.
Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society.
Those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the fatigue of supporting it.
Human nature is not of itself vicious.
Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.
The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
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.
Virtues are acquired through endeavor, Which rests wholly upon yourself. So, to praise others for their virtues Can but encourage one's own efforts.
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.
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
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.
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
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.
Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.
An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot.
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. '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.
That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true.
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.
Time makes more converts than reason.
These are the times that try men's souls.
There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice.
When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
War involves in its progress such a train of unforeseen circumstances that no human wisdom can calculate the end; it has but one thing certain, and that is to increase taxes.
It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes.
He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.
Character is much easier kept than recovered.
It is an affront to treat falsehood with complaisance.
My mind is my own church.
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad.
Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities.
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.
It is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration.
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.