Tag: Thomas Paine

“You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal. Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have.”

P. J. O’Rourke

“Only the winners decide what were war crimes.”

Gary Wills

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

Thomas Paine

“If citizens wish to retain their liberty, they cannot assume that those who seek power over them are honest. Skepticism of government is one of the most important-and most forgotten-bulwarks of freedom.”

James Bovard

“Where liberty is, there is my country.”

Benjamin Franklin

“All government operation is wasteful, inefficient, and serves the bureaucrat rather than the consumer.”

Murray Rothbard

“Taxes were not raised to carry on wars, wars were raised to carry on taxes.”

Thomas Paine

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

Thomas Sowell

THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.

Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but “to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.

Thomas Paine

“Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

Thomas Paine

“People will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people’s minds.”

Frank Zappa

“Someone asked me the other day if I believe in conspiracies. Well, sure. Here’s one. It is called the political system. It is nothing if not a giant conspiracy to rob, trick and subjugate the population.”

Jeffrey Tucker

“The greatest enemy of authority, therefore, is contempt, and the surest way to undermine it is laughter.”

Hannah Arendt

“Libertarians are learning to their sorrow that big businessmen cannot necessarily be relied upon to be their allies in the battle against extension of governmental encroachments.”

Henry Hazlitt

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

Thomas Paine

“It’s not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.”

Henry Kissinger

“The free market punishes irresponsibility. Government rewards it.”

Harry Browne

“Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.”

E.B. White

“Being allowed to choose between the political “left” and the political “right” provides the people with exactly as much power and freedom as allowing them to choose between death by hanging and death by firing squad.”

Larken Rose

“In government, the scum rises to the top.”

Friedrich Hayek

“No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.”

Thomas Paine

“Government is a parasite – a cancer that by nature tries to spread deeper into society. Those who want to run others’ lives won’t give up and start minding their own business.”

Harry Browne

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

Thomas Jefferson

“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”

Thomas Paine

“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

John Adams

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

George Bernard Shaw

“I don’t want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded.”

Edward Snowden

“The practice of arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”

Alexander Hamilton

“Part of the reason that the government’s fear mongering is succeeding is because so many people are so ignorant, that it is easier for government to frighten people in submission.”

James Bovard

“When all other rights are taken away, the right of rebellion is made perfect.”

Thomas Paine

“Government will not fail to employ education, to strengthen its hands and perpetuate its institutions.”

William Godwin

“The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.”

Thomas Paine

“Whatever power you give politicians and bureaucrats to use against other people will eventually be used by future politicians and bureaucrats against you.”

Michael Boldin

“I am convinced that there are more threats to American liberty within the 10 mile radius of my office on Capitol Hill than there are on the rest of the globe.”

Ron Paul

“When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.”

Thomas Sowell

“Ah, you miserable creatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don’t you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficient enough.”

Frederic Bastiat

“The gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side.”

Theodore J. Forstmann

“Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

Thomas Paine

Guest Post by Eric Peters

In the years just before the American movement for separation from Great Britain (it was not a “revolution,” properly speaking, as the American separatists had no desire to transform the government of Great Britain; they merely wished to be free of it) there was something called the committees of correspondence.

They were the 18th century equivalent of non-“authoritative” (i.e., official/corporate-government propaganda) Internet sites, such as the one you’re reading right now. A means by which people could share information – especially heretical information – among themselves, sidestepping the “authoritative” pabulum.

Continue reading “Paine, Jefferson and the Fear Mask”

Via History.com

On January 9, 1776, writer Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet “Common Sense,” setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries.

Continue reading “THIS DAY IN HISTORY – Thomas Paine publishes “Common Sense” – 1776″

Via History.com

Thomas Paine is arrested in France for treason. Though the charges against him were never detailed, he had been tried in absentia on December 26 and convicted. Before moving to France, Paine was an instrumental figure in the American Revolution as the author of Common Sense, writings used by George Washington to inspire the American troops. Paine moved to Paris to become involved with the French Revolution, but the chaotic political climate turned against him, and he was arrested and jailed for crimes against the country.

Continue reading “THIS DAY IN HISTORY – American writer Thomas Paine is arrested in France – 1793”