A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the struggle between reason and ignorance and their impact on society and governance.
Thomas Paine suggests that reason and ignorance are fundamental forces that shape human behavior and governance. When reason predominates, people govern themselves wisely, but when ignorance prevails, individuals comply with authority without question, allowing government to operate with ease. This dynamic emphasizes the importance of enlightenment and education in fostering a just society.
Themes
ReasonIgnoranceGovernmentMankindEnlightenment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of education in democracy.
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.
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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.
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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