A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
All people are born equal, and no one has the inherent right to elevate their family above others indefinitely.
In this quote, Thomas Paine argues against the notion of hereditary privilege, suggesting that just because someone may have earned respect or honor in their lifetime does not mean that their descendants should automatically inherit that status. He emphasizes the importance of equality among all individuals and warns against the dangers of family lineage dictating social status or privilege.
Themes
EqualityPrivilegeInheritanceHonorSocial Status
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on social justice, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of equality.
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
Everything which is properly business we must keep carefully separate from life. Business requires earnestness and method; life must have a freed handling.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
So that it must be only by the imagination that Satan has access to the soul, to tempt and delude it, or suggest anything to it. And this seems to be the reason why persons that are under the disease of melancholy are commonly so visibly and remarkably subject to the suggestions and temptations of Satan... Innumerable are the ways by which the mind may be led on to all kind of evil thoughts, by the exciting of external ideas in the imagination.
Jonathan EdwardsRead
The history of our spiritual life is a continuing search for the unity between ourselves and the world. Religion, art, and science follow, one and all, this aim.
Rudolf SteinerRead
All wars signify the failure of conflict resolution mechanisms, and they need post-war rebuilding of faith, trust and confidence.
Abdul KalamRead
Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization.
Nikolai BerdyaevRead
Stubborn selfishness leads otherwise good people to fight over herds, patches of sand, and strippings of milk. All this results from what the Lord calls coveting "the drop," while neglecting the "more weighty matters." (D&C 117:8) Myopic selfishness magnifies a mess of pottage and makes thirty pieces of silver look like a treasure trove. In our intense acquisitiveness, we forget Him who once said, "What is property unto me?"
Neal A. MaxwellRead