"Before anything can be reasoned upon to..." - Quote by Thomas Paine

“There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.”

“We repose an unwise confidence in any government, or in any men, when we invest them officially with too much, or an unnecessary quantity of, discretionary power.”

“There is no greater tyranny than that of the dead over the living.”

“A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of theart of persuading.”

“[R]eason is... given to us as a practical faculty, that is, as one that influences the will.”

“A reasonable man adjusts himself to the world. An unreasonable man expects the world to adjust itself to him. Therefore all progress is made by unreasonable people.”

“If I were wrong, wouldn't one be enough?”

“..., twice two is four is not life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death.”

“There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.”