Common Sense quotes for our day

So in addition to Atlas Shrugged I am also reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklins Auto-biography. As I was reading Common Sense today I ran in to several very powerful quotes from the book that like Atlas Shrugged apply extremely well to what is going on in our day. Please, feel free to comment, I entertain all view points.
This first one that I am posting is a great call for all men in our day- "O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. 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." Powerful words from an American Patriot.

This next one speaks to national debt and government spending. How did the founders view leaving government debt to our children?- "Debts we have none; and whatever we may contract on this account will serve as a glorious memento of our virtue. Can we but leave posterity with a settled form of government, an independent constitution of its own, the purchase at any price will be cheap. But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile acts repealed, and routing the present ministry only, is unworthy the charge, and is using posterity with the utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs, from which they derive no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy a man of honor, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and a peddling politician."

When Paine talked about ensuring checks and balances on the different branches of government he said- "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember, that virtue is not hereditary."

I love how bold Paine is in this next quote. He is speaking of the inclination of some to believe that rights emanate from government and are not natural/God given. He starts out quoting Sir John Dalrymple of England- "'it is very unfair in you to whithold them from that prince, by whose NOD ALONE they were permitted to do anything.' This is toryism with a witness! Here is idolatry even without a mask: And he who can calmly hear, and digest such doctrine, hath forfeited his claim to rationality- an apostate from the order of manhood; and ought to be considered- as one, who hath not only given up the proper dignity of man but sunk himself beneath the rank of animals, and contemptibly crawl throught the world like a worm."

I will continue to post applicable quotes from all of my reading and look forward to additional discussion here on the blog.