“Wise men are astonished at foolish things, and other people at wise ones”-Thomas Paine And it is to the higher expectations of the wise that the rest of us should always aspire. Tags: thomas+paine, thomas+paine+quotes, wisdom, foolish
Category Archives: The History Blog Project
On Keeping the True Cause Alive in Troubled Times
“Though the cause of America is the most honorable that man ever engaged in, I am not so dazzled by it as not to perceive the faults that are twisting themselves round it, and unnaturally claiming kindred with it.”–Thomas Paine In a troubled time such as we live, it is too easy to be dazzled …
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On the Consequence of an Out-of-Touch Government
“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, …
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On the Responsibility of Freedom
“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 …
On Making it Easy vs. Making it Right
“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 …
On Getting Over Yourself
“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 …
On the Dangers of Blind Trust, Irrational Loyalty, and Unaccountable Leaders
“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 …
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On the Built Society and Balance with Nature
“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, …
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On Bastille Day
“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 …
On Convictions, Messianic Missions, Delusions, and Accepting Reality in Iraq
“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 …
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