A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop, in the place of reason, argument and good order.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates the tendency to resort to fear tactics when reason and logic fail to persuade.
Thomas Paine's quote suggests that when rational arguments are ineffective in countering objections, some may resort to fear or intimidation as a tactic to dominate the conversation. This reflects a deeper societal issue where sound reasoning is overshadowed by chaotic emotional appeals, emphasizing the importance of maintaining rational discourse instead of succumbing to fear-based approaches.
Themes
FearReasonArgumentPolicyChaos
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about safety in public spaces, you can use this quote to highlight the dangers of appealing to fear rather than reason.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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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