“Every lie is welcome that suits its purpose.”-Thomas Paine Nobody wishes to be called a liar, but many will believe in lies to reinforce a delusion. To every lie, its purpose. Tags: thomas+paine+and+falsehood, lie+suits+it+purpose
Category Archives: The History Blog Project
On Redefining Torture
“An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”-Thomas Paine …
On Cheap Energy
“What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly”-Thomas Paine True for any aspect of our lives, but particularly significant today with the rising cost of energy, in terms of dollars as well as the social and environmental consequences of our energy culture. For decades we in the developed world have enjoyed an abundance that …
On the Nature of Ignorance
“Ignorance is of a peculiar nature; once dispelled, it is impossible to re-establish it. It is not originally a thing of itself, but is only the absence of knowledge; and though man may be kept ignorant, he cannot be made ignorant.”-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man To be ignorant is not bliss, to remain ignorant is …
On the Wisdom of Dreams
“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 …
On Whether God Is a Christian
“Why may we not suppose that the great Father of all is pleased with a variety of devotion? And that the greatest offence we can act is that by which we seek to torment and render each other miserable? …I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike, …
On Speaking Truth to (and of) Power: When Good People Follow Bad Leaders
“When I look into history and see the multitudes of men, otherwise virtuous, who have died, and their families been ruined, in the defense of knaves and fools, and which they would not have done, had they reasoned at all upon the system; I do not know a greater good that an individual can render …
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On Redacting the Truth
“Mystery is the antagonist of truth. It is a fog of human invention, that obscures truth, and represents it in distortion. Truth never envelops itself in mystery, and the mystery in which it is at any time enveloped is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself.”-Thomas Paine The enemy of truth is often …
On When the Only Right Thing to Do is Get Mad
“There are men who have not virtue enough to be angry.”-Thomas Paine But that isn’t you – you’re mad as hell and you aren’t going to take it anymore. Tags: mad+as+hell, anger, thomas+paine+quotes+interpreted
On the Campaign Primaries
“A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation”-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man Capturing the imagine of a nation, inspiring its citizens to unite and rise above petty grievance and intolerance, is what we need. Instead we get the primaries. Tags: thomas+paine+politica+party, thomas+paine+politics, thomas+paine+primaries, 2008+presidential+campaign, thomas+paine+quotes+interpreted