…some thoughts from Thomas Paine, May 29, 1736 – June 6, 1799.
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”
“Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.”
“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”
“Man did not enter society to be worse off, or to have fewer rights, but rather to have those rights better secured”
And my personal favorite:
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
