An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It lea… - Thomas Paine

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An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. Thomas Paine. Paris, July, 1795.

Thomas Paine

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About Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (February 9, 1737 [O.S. January 29, 1736] – 8 June 1809) was a British-American political writer, theorist, and activist who had a great influence on the thoughts and ideas which led to the American Revolution and the United States Declaration of Independence. He wrote three of the most influential and controversial works of the 18th Century: Common Sense, Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason. His ideas reflected Enlightenment-era ideals of transnational human rights.

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Edmund Burke John Adams Thomas Jefferson John Locke Joseph de Maistre

Additional quotes by Thomas Paine

...the so much boasted constitution of England...is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of producing what it seems to promise...

A government which cannot preserve the peace, is no government at all.

The world is my country, mankind are my friends, to do good is my religion.

An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would m… - Thomas Paine

About Thomas Paine

Additional quotes by Thomas Paine