Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but … - Thomas Paine

The circumstances of the world are continually changing, and the opinions of man change also; and as government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.

İnsanlığı sarsan en iğrenç kötülükler, en korkunç acımasızlıklar, en büyük sefaletler temelini vahiy ya da gökten indirilen din denilen bu olguda bulmaktadır. İnsanın yaratılışından bu yana yayılmasına çalışılan yüceliğin niteliğine karşı en onursuz inanç, ahlaka ve insanın mutluluğuna karşı en karşı en yıkıcı şey bu oldu

It has been the practice of all Christian commentators on the Bible, and of all Christian priests and preachers, to impose the Bible on the world as a mass of truth, and as the word of God; they have disputed and wrangled, and have anathematized each other about the supposable meaning of particular parts and passages therein; one has said and insisted that such a passage meant such a thing, another that it meant directly the contrary, and a third, that it meant neither one nor the other, but something different from both; and this they have called understanding the Bible.

It has happened, that all the answers that I have seen to the former part of 'The Age of Reason' have been written by priests: and these pious men, like their predecessors, contend and wrangle, and understand the Bible; each understands it differently, but each understands it best; and they have agreed in nothing but in telling their readers that Thomas Paine understands it not.