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. – Thomas Paine
Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be true. – Thomas Paine
But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing. – Thomas Paine
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children can live in peace. – Thomas Paine
My desire to curtail undue freedom of speech extends only to such public areas as restaurants, airports, streets, hotel lobbies, parks, and department stores. Verbal exchanges between consenting adults in private are as of little interest to me as they probably are to them. – Fran Lebowitz