“Were a man to be totally deprived of memory, he would be incapable of forming any just opinion.” There is the memory of a singles person’s life, that of whole nations and tribes, and the collective memory of all humanity. In all cases, to forget what has gone before is to deny the light of …
Author Archives: Thomas Schueneman
On What Makes a Cold Heart
“Arrogance and meanness, though in appearance opposite, are vices of the same heart.” Through arrogance we find a haughty sense of pride that disregards all but itself. Through meanness comes cruelty and malevolence that lashes out and injures others. Both are torn from the same soiled cloth of a heart despairing for its own compassion. …
On Not Giving Up
It ought not to be, that because we cannot do everything, that we ought not to do what we can.
-Thomas Paine
On the Problem of Assuming the Worst – Accepting a Heart of Darkness
For as certainly as a man predicts ill, he becomes inclined to wish it. The pride of having his judgment right hardens his heart, till at last he beholds with satisfaction, or sees with disappointment, the accomplishment or the failure of his predictions.
-Thomas Paine
On the War in Iraq, Nearly Four Years On
No human foresight can discern, no conclusion can be formed, what turn a war might take, if once set on foot by an invasion.
On the Golden Rule
Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself – that is my doctrine.
-Thomas Paine
On the Need for Government Oversight and Citizen Involvement
Can we possibly suppose that if Governments had originated in a right principal, and had not an interest in pursuing a wrong one, the world could have been in the wretched and quarelsome condition we have seen it?
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Pop Goes the Weasel – By Cobb
With this post ThomasPaineBlog.org starts a new column called “Paine and Loathing”. A humorous, irreverent look at our world. You may not like everything said here, we’re bound to ruffle some feathers. And for that we take as our inspiration Thomas Paine himself. “Pop Goes the Weasel” Every night when I go out The monkey’s …
Thomas Paine Celebrates 270 Years
Thomas Paine was born on January 29th, 1737 in Thetford England. He was born to modest circumstances, the son of Quaker craftsman who sewed whale bones into the stays of ladies corsets, Paine (the name was originally spelled “Pain” with the “e” added later) tried has hand at corset-making, starting at the age of twelve …
On Right Thinking, Logical Reasoning, and Not Judging a Book by its Cover
It is only by tracing things to their origin, that we can gina rightful ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we discover the boudary that divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know his own.
-Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice