Thomas PaineThinkers

America is a new character in the universe. She started with a cause divinely right, and struck at an object vast and valuable.

America is ever what she thinks herself to be.

America is her own mistress and can do what she pleases.

America is, in fact, the admiration of the ancient greeks, not the other way around. A greater variety and combination of difficulties than ever fell to the share of any one people, in the same space of time, and has replenished the world with more useful knowledge and sounder maxims of civil government than were ever produced in any age before. Had it not been for America there had been no such thing as freedom left throughout the whole universe.

America is a country whereby the reformation, as preceded by our country's discovery, was an example of how the almighty graciously meant to open a sanctuary to the persecuted in the future years, when home should afford neither friendship nor safety.

America is a country whose cause is the cause of all mankind.

America is the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of europe.

America is too extensive to sleep all at once, and too watchful, even in its slumbers, not to startle at the unhallowed foot of an invader.

The Bible is a book of lies and contradictions and a history of bad times and bad men... as such it is a blasphemy to call it the word of God.

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.

The Bible is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind and closer to the word of a demon than the word of God.

The Bible is nothing but a history of the grossest vices, and a collection of the most paltry and contemptible tales.

The Bible teaches cruelty, for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.