A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Let them call me rebel, and welcome, I feel no concern from it.
Interpretation
Rejecting societal labels can empower one's sense of identity and purpose.
In this quote, Thomas Paine expresses a fearless attitude towards being labeled a 'rebel.' He finds strength in societal judgment and values his own beliefs over conformity, reinforcing the idea that individual conviction is more significant than public opinion.
In practice
In a speech encouraging youth to embrace their individuality, one might say, 'Let them call me rebel, and welcome, for it is in rebellion that we find our true selves.'
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.
Following Emporer Nero's command, "Let the Christians be exterminated!:" . . . they [the Christians] were made the subjects of sport; they were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights.
They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken.
I am astonished but not discouraged by my enormous responsibility. Devoted both from affection and duty to the cause of the people, I shall combat with equal ardor aristocracy, despotism, and faction.
Freedom is not a gift of heaven, you have to fight for it every day
The handicap of deafness is not in the ear; it is in the mind.
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