A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Paine suggests that the beliefs shaped by religion are often irrational or extreme, akin to those found in a lunatic asylum.
In this quote, Thomas Paine reflects on the influence of religion on society, suggesting that the extreme and often irrational beliefs that dominate religious discussions are akin to the unhinged ideas found in a lunatic asylum. By highlighting the 'absence from Jerusalem' of such an institution, he implies that a place of reason and rational thought would counterbalance the fervent and sometimes irrational nature of religious belief, thereby promoting a more logical and temperate worldview.
Themes
ReligionIrrationalityBeliefsSocietyPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the role of religion in governance, one might cite this quote to argue for a secular approach.
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.
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
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