A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
The choicest gift of God to man, the gift of reason; and having endeavoured to force upon himself the belief of a system against which reason revolts, he ungratefully calls it human reason; as if man could give reason to himself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of reason as a divine gift and critiques the denial of its significance in favor of imposed beliefs.
In this quote, Thomas Paine reflects on the inherent value of reason as a precious gift bestowed upon humanity by God. He suggests that when individuals attempt to suppress their natural reasoning in favor of accepted dogmas or beliefs that contradict reason, they not only betray their own intellect but also fail to recognize that reason is an intrinsic part of being human, rather than something that can be created or bestowed by oneself.
Themes
ReasonGiftBeliefHumanityIntellect
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of critical thinking, this quote serves as a reminder to value reason over dogma.
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.
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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.
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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
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