"Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting..." - Quote by Thomas Paine

“For the fate of Charles the first, hath only made kings more subtle — not more just.”

“But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.”

“Wisdom degenerates in governments as governments increase in age.”

“I wish my countrymen to consider that whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can ever commit the leastact of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it. A government which deliberately enacts injustice, and persists in it, will at length even become the laughing-stock of the world.”

“Balanced budget requirements seem more likely to produce accounting ingenuity than genuinely balanced budgets.”

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Experience has taught us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession, and when the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

“An average English word is four letters and a half. By hard, honest labor I've dug all the large words out of my vocabulary and shaved it down till the average is three and a half... I never write metropolis for seven cents, because I can get the same money for city. I never write policeman, because I can get the same price for cop.... I never write valetudinarian at all, for not even hunger and wretchedness can humble me to the point where I will do a word like that for seven cents; I wouldn't do it for fifteen.”

“Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.”

“Because of the internet and communications, the clash of cultures is much more direct. People feel, I think, less certain about their identity, less certain about economic security.”