A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
The period of debate is closed. Arms, as a last resource, must decide the contest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the necessity of action when all discussion has failed, advocating for a final resort of conflict to resolve disputes.
Thomas Paineβs quote reflects the critical moment in a debate when words and discussions have failed to bring about a resolution. It asserts that when all peaceful avenues of negotiation are exhausted, sometimes the only option left is to confront issues through conflict or force, symbolized by 'arms'. This perspective underscores the urgency and seriousness of the situation, suggesting that some matters are too important to be decided solely through debate.
Themes
DebateArmsConflictResolutionNegotiation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for military intervention, one might quote Paine to underscore the need for decisive action.
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
Similar quotes
It is better to die than to preserve this life by incurring disgrace. The loss of life causes but a moment's grief, but disgrace brings grief every day of one's life.
ChanakyaRead
I was afraid of being a failure, of not having the best time or of being chicken. But every year I get older I think, What was I fearing last year?' You forget. And then you move on.
Sandra BullockRead
Most unmarried Somali girls who got pregnant committed suicide. I knew of one girl in Mogadishu who poured a can of gasoline over herself in the living room, with everyone there, and burned herself alive. Of course, if she hadn't done this, her father and brothers would probably have killed her anyway.
Ayaan Hirsi AliRead
The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to SPEAK.
Frederick DouglassRead
I am not going to second-guess my old battlefield comrades from Iraq and Afghanistan; each has his own reason for what he has done.
David PetraeusRead
There's a difference between bravery and rash stupidity.
Jamaica KincaidRead