Thomas Paine – The First American Blogger
His Words in Today's Context
“As this is in the order of nature, the order of Government must necessarily follow it, or Government will, as we see it does, degenerate into ignorance”-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man Isolation, an unwillingness to allow dissent, and a refusal to acknowledge realities that don’t line up with ideologies makes for ignorant governance. Tags: thomas+paine, thomas+paine+quotes, …
Continue reading “On the Consequence of an Out-of-Touch Government”
“Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime”-Thomas Paine One crucial component of maintaining a free society and Democratic Republic is the sense of responsibility of the people to maintain their own civil freedom and that of the society at large. The responsibility to participate at some level and remain aware of what their government …
“Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things.”-Thomas Paine, Common Sense History is replete with immediacies that made oppression of human rights and dignity convenient. There is little in the best of American history that lends itself much to convenience, but instead from the determined striving of the human …
“Among ridiculous things nothing is more ridiculous than ridiculous rage”– Thomas Paine Life is hard enough. In living from one day to the next, much of what comprises our outlook and general mood is entirely up to each one of us. Every life is filled with, at a minimum, mild irritants, inconveniences, and disappointments. How we …
“There is a general and striking difference between the genuine effects of truth itself, and the effects of falsehood believed to be truth. Truth is naturally benign; but false-hood believed to be truth is always furious. The former delights in serenity, is mild and persuasive, and seeks not the auxiliary aid of invention. The latter …
“When it is laid down as a maxim, that a king can do no wrong, it places him in a state of similar security with that of idiots and persons insane, and responsibility is out of the question with respect to himself.” Demanding blind loyalty and cronyism, shunning any criticism and persecuting the critic, allowing …
Continue reading “On the Dangers of Blind Trust, Irrational Loyalty, and Unaccountable Leaders”
“Taking it then for granted, that no person ought to be in a worse condition when born under what is called a state of civilization, than he would have been, had he been born in a state of nature, and that civilization ought to have made, and ought still to make, provision for that purpose, …
Continue reading “On the Built Society and Balance with Nature”
“When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have freedom.” Bastille Day can not pass without remembering the role Thomas Paine had in the French revolution. From Part II of Thomas Paine’s series of essays The Rights of Man, Paine wrote this in 1792, three years after …
“It is not our belief or disbelief that can make or unmake the fact.”-Thomas Paine, Age of Reason When a belief defies readily available facts, it becomes a delusion. I may believe I have lots of money in the bank, but to hold onto that belief given the fact of my bank balance would prescribe …
Continue reading “On Convictions, Messianic Missions, Delusions, and Accepting Reality in Iraq”
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” -Thomas Paine, The American Crisis On the Fourth of July it is good to remember that all we take so very much for granted was not always so. Freedom from political tyranny was very much a matter …
Continue reading “On Celebrating Thomas Paine and the Spirit of ’76”