Thomas Paine’s Ideas that Changed the World

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Throughout his life Thomas Paine supported many of the ideas that formed America and changed the world. His papers and pamphlets served to inform and convince both citizens and leaders of his ideas. He was a revolutionary that supported the rhetoric for the American Revolution in Common Sense. He had inspired American soldiers with The American Crisis. He refuted the idea of the perpetuation of monarchies in the Rights of Man, and eventually meets his careers end with The Age of Reason. Thomas Pain sent letters to Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and many others trying to persuade the nation’s leaders to follow his ideas. Thomas Pain spent his life writing about politics, and political theory and had a massive impact on what will become American culture and way of life, because everything he wrote was to promote the ideas of freedom, equality, and individualism.
Thomas Paine believed certain freedoms were innate and others were earned. He believed in the freedoms of the individual but not the freedoms of one man to control another. He had a certain sense of fair play, that people should be it certain positions in society based on their accomplishments, and no man was in a position to rule without consent, restriction, or the ability to be removed from office.
“enthrone Equality; form a good Constitution; divide well its powers; let there be no privileges, no distinctions of birth, no monopolies; make safe the liberty of industry and of trade, the equal distribution of [family] inheritances, publicity of administration, freedom of the press: these things all established, you will be assured of good laws, and need not fear the powerful men. Willingly or unwillingly, all citizens will be under the Law.” 1
Thomas Paine made an ou...

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...Paine, Vol. III” The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. III. Gutenberg, 7 Feb. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
The Third volume of his collected works is mostly a collection of letters to various people, such as Thomas Jefferson, and many other of his smaller writings.
Paine, Thomas. “The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. IV” The Writings of Thomas Paine, Vol. IV. Gutenberg, 7 Feb. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
The Fourth volume of his works includes “The Age of Reason” a pamphlet that contests institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the Bible.
Bisheff, Maurice. "The Moral and Political Thought of Thomas Paine." The Institute of World
Culture . (2006). http://www.thomaspaine.us/article_bisheff01.html (accessed April 24, 2014).
It is a short essay over Thomas Paine’s thoughts on Morality and Politics. Focused on the ideas of government, self-government, and the common good.

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