The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren and to do good is my religion.

This cosmopolitan declaration is commonly attributed to Thomas Paine in the context of his radical Enlightenment politics and deistic moral outlook, which emphasized universal human rights over inherited national or sectarian loyalties. It is frequently presented as a succinct expression of the worldview Paine advanced in works like *Rights of Man* and *The Age of Reason*: that moral duty is grounded in doing good rather than in church doctrine, and that political identity should not be confined by borders. However, the line’s exact occasion and first appearance in Paine’s authenticated writings are difficult to pin down, and it often circulates in quotation collections without a precise contemporaneous citation.

The statement compresses three linked claims: moral identity should be universal (“the world is my country”), human beings form a single moral community (“all mankind are my brethren”), and ethical action is the core of spirituality (“to do good is my religion”). It rejects narrow nationalism and sectarian boundaries in favor of cosmopolitan obligation. In Paine’s idiom, “religion” is not primarily creed or church authority but practical ethics grounded in reason and sympathy. The quote’s enduring appeal lies in its fusion of Enlightenment universalism with a simple moral program: belonging is global, kinship is human, and piety is measured by beneficence.