A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
These are the times that try men's souls.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the challenges that test human resilience and character during difficult times.
Thomas Paine's quote underscores the notion that adversity reveals a person's true strength and determination. In times of crisis, individuals are tested to their limits, and it is often in these moments that their essential qualities and values come to the forefront. Paine encourages reflection on how we respond to challenges, suggesting that such trials are opportunities for growth and reaffirmation of our principles.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a motivational speech about overcoming life challenges.
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
Don't play it safe. Resist the seductions of the cowardly values our society has come to prize so highly: comfort, convenience, security, predictability, control. These, too, are nets. Above all, resist the fear of failure. Yes, you will make mistakes. But they will be your mistakes, not someone else's. And you will survive them, and you will know yourself better for having made them, and you will be a fuller and a stronger person.
Young people are capable, when aroused, of bringing down the towers of oppression and raising the banners of freedom.
I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.
When I was harassed and discriminated against, I fought as hard as I could - because I hadn't gone through all of that, I hadn't worked so hard my entire life, just to have someone take it away from me.
Every good citizen makes his country's honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and its conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
We've had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence.
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