Frases de Thomas Paine

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“O governo, mesmo quando perfeito, não passa de um mal necessário; quando imperfeito, é um mal insuportável.”

“O facto de continuarmos a pensar que uma determinada coisa não é errada dá-nos uma aparência superficial de estarmos certos.”

“O mundo é o meu país, toda a humanidade são meus irmãos, e fazer o bem é a minha religião.”

“Manter o caráter é bem mais fácil do que recuperá-lo.”

“Quem quer garantir a própria liberdade, deve preservar da opressão até o inimigo; pois, se fugir a esse dever, estará a estabelecer um precedente que até a ele próprio há-de atingir.”

“A crença num Deus cruel faz o homem cruel.”

“Embora a avareza impeça um homem de se tornar necessariamente pobre, geralmente torna-o demasiado timorato para enriquecer.”

“Para ser feliz um homem tem que ser fiel a si mesmo. A infidelidade não consiste em acreditar ou em não acreditar, consiste em professar aquilo em que não se acredita”

“A minha pátria é o mundo, e a minha religião a prática do bem.”

“Não fazer nada é o trabalho mais cansativo do mundo, pois você não pode se demitir e descansar!”

“Eu admiro aqueles que conseguem sorrir com os problemas, reunir forças na angústia, e ganhar coragem na reflexão. É coisa de pequenas mentes encolher-se, mas aquele cujo coração é firme, e cuja consciência aprova sua conduta, perseguirá seus princípios até a morte.”

“A sociedade, em qualquer forma, é uma benção, mas o governo, mesmo em sua melhor forma, não é nada mais que um mal necessário; na sua pior forma, é intolerável.”

“O melhor governo é o que governa menos.”

“É muito mais fácil conservar o caráter do que recobrá-lo.”

“O princípio moral das revoluções é instruir, não destruir.”

“Existem tempos em que as almas são testadas.”

“Sempre que lemos as histórias obscenas, os deboches voluptuosos, as execuções cruéis e torturantes, e o espírito implacável de vingança com os quais mais de metade da Bíblia está preenchida, seria mais consistente que a chamássemos de a palavra de um demônio, do que de a Palavra de Deus. Trata-se de uma história de maldade, que serviu para corromper e brutalizar a humanidade; e, de minha parte, eu sinceramente a detesto, assim como detesto tudo que é cruel.”

“A Bíblia é o livro mais lido e o menos examinado que qualquer outro que já existiu.”

“Aquele que não ousa ofender, não pode ser honesto.”

“As leis de difícil execução em geral não podem ser boas.”

“A sociedade é produto de nossos desejos, e o governo de nossas maldades”

“Os títulos não passam de apelidos, e todos apelidos são títulos.”

“Alguns escritores de tal modo confundiram sociedade e governo, que entre os dois deixaram pouca ou nenhuma distinção; entretanto, não só são diferentes como possuem origens diversas. A sociedade é produzida pelas nossas necessidades, e o governo, pela nossa maldade; a primeira promove 'positivamente' a nossa felicidade, unindo as nossas afeições, enquanto o segundo o faz 'negativamente', refreando os nossos vícios. A primeira encoraja o intercâmbio, o segundo cria distinções. A primeira é uma patrocinadora, o segundo, punitivo.”

“Minha mente é a minha igreja.”

“É impossível calcular o dano moral, se é que posso chamá-lo assim, que a mentira mental tem causado na sociedade.”

“Estimamos pouco aquilo que obtemos com demasiada facilidade.”

“Ao planearmos para a posteridade, deveríamos lembrar-nos de que a virtude não é hereditária.”

“Um governo que precisa de juramentos não merece apoio, nem deve ser apoiado.”

“Um bom professor vale mais que cem sacerdotes.”

“É a direcção e não a intensidade que deve ser levada em consideração.”

“O erro que começou há mil anos é tão errado como o que começa hoje, e o acerto que surge hoje é tão certo como se tivesse a sanção de séculos.”

“Fazer o bem é a minha religião.”

“Muitas vezes, o sublime e o ridículo encontram-se tão estreitamente relacionados, que é difícil classificá-los separadamente. Um passo além do sublime e cai-se no ridículo; um passo além do ridículo e chega-se ao sublime.”

“O governo é somente necessário para suprir os poucos casos em que a sociedade e a civilização não são convenientemente competentes.”

“The Theophilanthropists believe in the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul.”

“The word of God is the creation we behold and it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.”

“What more does man want to know than that the hand or power that made these things is divine, is omnipotent? Let him believe this with the force it is impossible to repel, if he permits his reason to act, and his rule of moral life will follow of course.”

“Giving then to matter all the properties which philosophy knows it has, or all that atheism ascribes to it, and can prove, and even supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account for the system of the universe or of the solar system, because it will not account for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. When, therefore, we discover a circumstance of such immense importance, that without it the universe could not exist, and for which neither matter, nor any, nor all, the properties of matter can account, we are by necessity forced into the rational and comfortable belief of the existence of a cause superior to matter, and that cause man calls, God.”

“There are, in every country, some magnificent charities established by individuals. It is, however, but little that any individual can do, when the whole extent of the misery to be relieved is considered. He may satisfy his conscience, but not his heart. He may give all that he has, and that all will relieve but little. It is only by organizing civilization upon such principles as to act like a system of pulleys, that the whole weight of misery can be removed.”

“We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in.”

“Certainly one may, with as much reason and decency, plead for murder, robbery, lewdness, and barbarity, as for this practice: They are not more contrary to the natural dictates of Conscience, and feelings of Humanity; nay, they are all comprehended in it.”

“I […] could not avoid reflecting how wretched was the condition of a disrespected man.”

“The election that followed, was not a contested election, but an animated one. The candidates were not men, but principles. Societies were formed in Paris, and committees of correspondence and communication established throughout the nation, for the purpose of enlightening the people, and explaining to them the principles of civil government; and so orderly was the election conducted, that it did not give rise even to the rumor of tumult.”

“If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.”

“The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system.”

“As much in vain, perhaps, will they search ancient history for examples of the modern Slave-Trade. Too many nations enslaved the prisoners they took in war. But to go to nations with whom there is no war, who have no way provoked, without farther design of conquest, purely to catch inoffensive people, like wild beasts, for slaves, is an hight of outrage against Humanity and Justice, that seems left by Heathen nations to be practised by pretended Christians. How shameful are all attempts to colour and excuse it!”

“Titles are but nick-names, and every nickname is a title. The thing is perfectly harmless in itself, but it marks a sort of foppery in the human character, which degrades it. It reduces man into the diminutive of man in things which are great, and the counterfeit of women in things which are little. It talks about its fine blue ribbon like a girl, and shows its new garter like a child. A certain writer, of some antiquity, says: "When I was a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."”

“Let me have none of your Popish stuff! Get away with you, good morning.”

“When the qualification to vote is regulated by years, it is placed on the firmest possible ground, because the qualification is such as nothing but dying before the time can take away; and the equality of Rights, as a principle, is recognized in the act of regulating the exercise. But when Rights are placed upon, or made dependent upon property, they are on the most precarious of all tenures. "Riches make themselves wings, and fly away," and the rights fly with them; and thus they become lost to the man when they would be of most value.”

“Our Traders in MEN (an unnatural commodity!) must know the wickedness of that SLAVE-TRADE, if they attend to reasoning, or the dictates of their own hearts; and such as shun and stiffle all these, wilfully sacrifice Conscience, and the character of integrity to that golden Idol.”

“Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.”

“That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.”

“With respect to what are called denominations of religion, if every one is left to judge of its own religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is wrong; but if they are to judge of each other's religion, there is no such thing as a religion that is right; and therefore all the world is right, or all the world is wrong. But with respect to religion itself, without regard to names, and as directing itself from the universal family of mankind to the Divine object of all adoration, it is man bringing to his Maker the fruits of his heart; and though those fruits may differ from each other like the fruits of the earth, the grateful tribute of every one is accepted.”

“The artificial noble shrinks into a dwarf before the noble of nature; and in the few instances (for there are some in all countries) in whom nature, as by a miracle, has survived in aristocracy, those men despise it.”

“The greatest characters the world have known have arisen on the democratic floor. Aristocracy has not been able to keep a proportionate pace with democracy.”

“Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.”

“America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.”

“When I contemplate the natural dignity of man, when I feel (for Nature has not been kind enough to me to blunt my feelings) for the honour and happiness of its character, I become irritated at the attempt to govern mankind by force and fraud, as if they were all knaves and fools, and can scarcely avoid disgust at those who are thus imposed upon.”

“For what is the amount of all his prayers but an attempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say: Thou knowest not so well as I.”

“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required.”

“Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [sic (actually the fifteenth)] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.”

“The example of the Jews, in many things, may not be imitated by us; they had not only orders to cut off several nations altogether, but if they were obliged to war with others, and conquered them, to cut off every male; they were suffered to use polygamy and divorces, and other things utterly unlawful to us under clearer light.”

“Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.”