I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.

—Thomas Paine

About Thomas Paine

Portrait of Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain, February 9, 1737 [O.S. January 29, 1736] – June 8, 1809; ) was an English-born American Founding Father, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. He authored Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783), two of the most influential pamphlets at the start of the American...

More quotations from Thomas Paine

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

—Thomas Paine

What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

—Thomas Paine

Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad.

—Thomas Paine

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

—Thomas Paine

Be eager to fulfill the smallest duty and flee from transgression for one duty includes another and one transgression induces another transgression.

—Thomas Paine

More quotations tagged with “mankind”

A curious part of the human psyche is that the moment that a person presumed to be in danger is discovered to be safe, everyone's anxiety turns into anger.

—Samuel Johnson

Man is the Only Animal that Blushes. Or needs to.

—Samuel Butler

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

What mattered was not what happens to you, but how you handle it. Self-command is required to overcome the dangerous misinformation of our emotions, and because for the most part the self is the only thing that we can command. We have no control, ultimately, over what people do or think. What we can influence is our understanding of these circumstances and how we respond to them.

—Joseph Baretti

To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.

—Bertrand Russell

History

11 Jul 2015 Added