"The universe is composed of matter, and, as a system, is sustained by motion. Motion is not a property of matter, and without this motion the solar system could not exist. Were motion a property of matter, that undiscovered and undiscoverable thing, called perpetual motion, would establish itself. It is because motion is not a property of matter, that perpetual motion is an impossibility in the hand of every being, but that of the Creator of motion. When the pretenders to Atheism can produce perpetual motion, and not till then, they may expect to be credited."
React to this quote
More by Thomas Paine
See allResonant Thoughts
"In those days, as I understand, masters could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since then, such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation, as to amount almost to prohibitio…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Treasury notes of small as well as high denomination, bottomed on a tax which would redeem them in ten year…"
— Thomas Jefferson"The whole world and every human being in it is everybody's business."
— William Saroyan"To a society that inarticulately and thoughtlessly takes itself to be divine, Hegel says, Yes, we are indee…"
— Merold Westphal"Open Season on 'Open Society': Why an anti-communist Holocaust survivor is being demonized as a Socialist, …"
— George Soros"I appreciate being picked one of the top 100 performers, but who is number one and who is number two doesn'…"
— Little Richard"In one of my early books I suggested that the potential significance of LSD and other psychedelics for psyc…"
— Stanislav Grof