A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the integrity of God does not necessarily imply the truthfulness of religious institutions or texts.
In this quote, Thomas Paine critiques the idea that God’s inability to lie provides any assurance about the honesty of priests or the accuracy of the Bible. He highlights the importance of questioning authority and encourages individuals to think critically about religious claims rather than accepting them blindly, suggesting that the actions and words of religious leaders can be fallible regardless of divine truth.
Themes
TruthFaithReligionIntegrityAuthority
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about religious beliefs, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of questioning religious authority.
More from Thomas Paine
All quotes →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
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
Thomas PaineRead
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