Sourced and curated.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 1.3

I am not one of those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other countries and in this. But I do say, that in all disputes between them and their rulers, the presumption is at least upon a par in favour of the people.

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again.

1770

★ 1.9

Pamphlet · Religious literature · Philosophical literature

The Age of Reason · 1795

★ 2.0

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

John Adams

1776

★ 2.1

The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave.

James Connolly

1915

★ 3.5

We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy, to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt.

1770

★ 3.5

To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

1770

★ 3.5

It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public, to be the most anxious for its welfare.

1769

★ 3.6

The judicial power ought to be distinct from both the legislative and the executive, and independent upon both, that so it may be a check upon both, as both should be checks upon that.

John Adams

1776

★ 3.6

None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.

John Milton

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates · 1649

★ 3.7

No man who knows aught, can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free.

John Milton

1649

★ 3.7

We set ourselves to bite the hand that feeds us.

1770

★ 3.7

Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 3.7

As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 3.7

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 3.8

Wisdom is not the purchase of a day.

Any system of religion that has any thing in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system.

The Crisis · 1776

★ 3.8

Pamphlet · Religious literature · Philosophical literature

The Age of Reason · 1794

★ 3.8

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

James Madison

1795

★ 3.8

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 3.9

Monarchy and succession have laid... The world in blood and ashes.

All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 3.9

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 3.9

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 4.0

Pamphlet · Religious literature · Philosophical literature

In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.

The Age of Reason · 1794

★ 4.5

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

I believe in one God and no more, and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 4.8

Pamphlet · Religious literature · Philosophical literature

The church has set up a system of religion very contradictory to the character of the person whose name it bears. It has set up a religion of pomp and of revenue in pretended imitation of a person whose life was humility and poverty.

The Age of Reason · 1794

★ 5.4

Pamphlet · Religious literature · Philosophical literature

The Age of Reason · 1794

★ 5.4

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 5.5

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 6.4

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

The Crisis · 1776

★ 7.0

The happiness of society is the end of government.

John Adams

1776

★ 7.1

But where says some is the king of America?...In America the law is king.

A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism.

Common Sense · 1776

★ 7.2

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 8.2

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 8.7

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature

The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.

The Communist Manifesto · 1848

★ 9.6

Pamphlet · Political literature · Economic literature