“The abilities of man must fall short on one side or the other, like too scanty a blanket when you are abed. If you pull it upon your shoulders, your feet are left bare; if you thrust it down to your feet, your shoulders are uncovered.”-Thomas Paine We’re a social animal, more or less. It …
Monthly Archives: May 2007
On the Ongoing Saga of Alberto Gonzales and the Department of Justice
It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
Thomas Paine
On Why We Dream
I am apt to think that the wisest men dream the most inconsistently. For as the judgment has nothing or very little to do in regulating the circumstances of a dream, it necessarily follows that the more powerful and creative the imagination is, the wilder it runs in that state of unrestrained invention; while those who are unable to wander out of the track of common thinking when awake, never exceed the boundaries of common nature when asleep.
Thomas Paine
On Learning and Living
Every person of learning is finally his own teacher, the reason of which is that principles, being a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception.
Thomas Paine
On Fear as a Tactic
When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop, in the place of reason, argument and good order.
Thomas Paine
On Spin, Politics, and Human Nature
The action of spinning upholds a top.
Thomas Paine
On Respecting Your Elders
Wisdom is not the purchase of a day
Thomas Paine