Thomas Paine Quotes

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself.

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.

For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?

I believe in the America people's ability to govern themselves. If government would just get out of the way and allow them to lead their lives as they choose, they will succeed.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man.

The less government we have, the better—the fewer laws, and the less confided power.

I believe everybody got the right to live their own life the way they want to.

[People] don't like the government telling them what to do or telling them how to live their lives.

The truly free person in society is a disciplined person.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

Life is fairer when individuals are free to make their own decisions

I still say I can do whatever I want as long as I'm not hurting anybody else. I don't understand why more people aren't like that.

All men are created equal. It is what you do from there that makes the difference. We are all free agents in life. We make our own decisions. We control our own destiny.

I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force.

A man can be free without being great, but no man can be great without being free.

Individualism regards man-every man-as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being.

Simply because the nanny-state wants to hug you doesn't mean it's not tyrannical if you don't want to be hugged.

I wrote about why I didn't think libertarians are really doing this kind of thing so that they can have sex with dogs. I discussed some of the reasons that a person might want to live out of the control of our federal, state, local, and every other form of government. Actually, I don't think I even called myself a libertarian. I think Tom Shroder identified me as one.

I like contradictions. We have never attained the infinite variety and contradictions that exist in nature. Tomorrow I shall contradict myself. That is the one way I have of asserting my liberty, the real liberty one does not find as a member of society.

When you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need to do.

What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make others people's decisions for them? Liberty, the very opposite of ownership and control, cannot, then, result from political action, either at the polls or at the barricades, but rather evolves out of attitude. If it results from anything, it must be levity.

I think it's a scary thing for a lot of people to think of the government not being involved in their lives, particularly single women.

Every person's life is theirs by right. An individual's life can and must belong only to to himself, not to any society or community, or he is then but a slave.

Personal liberty is the paramount essential to human dignity and human happiness.