The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

system.
‘The Age of Reason’ pt. 1 (1794)
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.
‘The Age of Reason’ pt. 2 (1795) p. 20
Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the
ruins of the bowers of paradise.
‘Common Sense’ (1776) ch. 1
As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious
professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith.
‘Common Sense’ (1776) ch. 4
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in
this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love
and thanks of men and women.
‘The Crisis’ (December 1776) introduction
As he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick.
On Edmund Burke losing the debate on the French Revolution to Charles James Fox, in the House of
Commons; ‘Letter to the Addressers on the late Proclamation’ (1792) p. 4
The religion of humanity.
‘Letter to the People of England on the Invasion of England’ (1804)
[Edmund Burke] is not affected by the reality of distress touching his heart, but by the showy
resemblance of it striking his imagination. He pities the plumage, but forgets the dying bird.
‘The Rights of Man’ (1791) p. 26 (on Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790)
Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity. It is their sanguinary
punishments which corrupt mankind.
‘The Rights of Man’ (1791) p. 33
Titles are but nick-names, and every nick-name is a title.
‘The Rights of Man’ (1791) pt. 1
[In France] All that class of equivocal generation, which in some countries is called
aristocracy, and in others nobility, is done away, and the peer is exalted into MAN.
‘The Rights of Man’ (1791) pt. 1
Persecution is not an original feature of any religion; but it is always the strongly marked
feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law.
‘The Rights of Man’ (1791) pt. 1
All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny...To inherit a government, is to inherit the
people, as if they were flocks and herds.
‘The Rights of Man’ pt. 2 (1792)
When, in countries that are called civilized, we see age going to the workhouse and youth to