A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that when government is removed, society naturally organizes itself to ensure mutual safety and cooperation.
Thomas Paine argues that the absence of formal government does not lead to chaos; rather, it allows society to spontaneously form associations based on shared interests. In this state, individuals come together collaboratively to ensure their own security and well-being, demonstrating that the inherent social nature of humans drives them to cooperate for mutual benefit.
Themes
SocietyGovernmentCooperationSecurityCommon Interest
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community resilience after a disaster, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of self-organization.
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
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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