A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Political associations exist to protect fundamental human rights, including liberty and property.
In this quote, Thomas Paine emphasizes that the primary purpose of any political organization or government should be to safeguard the inherent rights of individuals. He identifies these rights as key elements of human existence that must be preserved against any form of injustice or oppression, underlining the importance of personal freedom and security in society.
Themes
PoliticalRightsLibertyOppressionSecurity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about human rights, one might quote Thomas Paine to emphasize the importance of protecting personal freedoms.
More from Thomas Paine
All quotes βThat 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
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
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
Thomas PaineRead
Similar quotes
The affairs of America I shall ever look upon as my first business whilst I am in Europe. Any confidence from the king and ministers, any popularity I may have among my own countrymen, any means in my power, shall be, to the best of my skill, and till the end of my life, exerted in behalf of an interest I have so much at heart.
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The eyes of the soul of the multitudes are unable to endure the vision of the divine.
PlatoRead
You may lie with your mouth, but with the mouth you make as you do so you none the less tell the truth.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
J. Robert OppenheimerRead
The democratic youth lives along day by day, gratifying the desire that occurs to him, at one time drinking and listening to the flute, at another downing water and reducing, now practicing gymnastic, and again idling and neglecting everything; and sometimes spending his time as though he were occupied in philosophy.
PlatoRead
He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all
Richard BachRead