A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them.
Interpretation
Paine expresses a belief that America's geographical isolation allows it to thrive in peace and prosperity.
In this quote, Thomas Paine highlights the unique position of America, suggesting that its remoteness from global conflicts provides an opportunity for happiness and trade rather than strife. He implies that being distanced from the 'wrangling world' allows America to focus on growth and commerce, making it an ideal place for prosperity.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the advantages of geographical advantages in economics.
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
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.
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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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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
What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.
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Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship.
...the moment of passage from disturbance into harmony is that of intensest life.
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.
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