A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Freedom requires hard work and sacrifice to maintain.
This quote by Thomas Paine emphasizes that true freedom is not a passive state but a condition that requires effort, vigilance, and responsibility. Those who desire the benefits of freedom must be willing to endure the challenges and responsibilities that come with it, much like any worthwhile endeavor in life.
Themes
FreedomSacrificeResponsibilityVigilanceEffort
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for civic engagement, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of participation in democracy.
More from Thomas Paine
All quotes →That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not.
Thomas PaineRead
I consider the war of America against Britain as the country's war, the public's war, or the war of the people in their own behalf, for the security of their natural rights, and the protection of their own property.
Thomas PaineRead
Had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscribed on the face of the sun and the moon, in characters that all nations would have understood, the whole earth had known it in twenty-four hours, and all nations would have believed it; whereas, though it is now almost two thousand years since, as they tell us, Christ came upon earth, not a twentieth part of the people of the earth know anything of it, and among those who do, the wiser part do not believe it.
Thomas PaineRead
The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.
Thomas PaineRead
To reason with goverments, as they have existed for ages, is to argue with brutes. It is only from the nations themselves that reforms can be expected
Thomas PaineRead
Similar quotes
I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear!
Nina SimoneRead
No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.
Douglas MacarthurRead
Freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. We have to fight for it and protect it and then hand it to them, so that they shall do the same, or we're going to find ourselves spending our sunset years telling our children and our children's children, about a time in America, back in the day, when men and women were free.
Ronald ReaganRead
You put a tattoo on yourself with the knowledge that this body is yours to have and enjoy while you're here. You have fun with it, and nobody else can control (supposedly) what you do with it. That's why tattooing is such a big thing in prison: it's an expression of freedom—one of the only expressions of freedom there. They can lock you down, control everything, but 'I've got my mind, and I can tattoo my body—alter it my way as an act of personal will.'
Don Ed HardyRead
The secret point of money and power in America is neither the things that money can buy nor power for power's sake... but absolute personal freedom, mobility, privacy. It is the instinct which drove America to the Pacific, all through the nineteenth century, the desire to be able to find a restaurant open in case you want a sandwich, to be a free agent, live by one's own rules.
Joan DidionRead
We do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.
Barack ObamaRead