A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
What is it the Bible teaches us? -- rapine, cruelty, and murder.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Paine critiques the moral teachings of the Bible, suggesting they promote violence rather than kindness.
In this quote, Thomas Paine challenges the conventional view of the Bible as a source of moral guidance, suggesting instead that it endorses negative behaviors such as violence and oppression. He highlights a stark contrast between the expected teachings of compassion and the realities he perceives, urging readers to reconsider the moral implications of religious texts and their influence on human behavior.
Themes
BibleMoralityViolenceCritiqueReligion
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate on the morality of religious texts, this quote can serve as an illustration of the potential for misinterpretation.
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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