A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Paine criticizes revealed religion, arguing that it has led to significant suffering and cruelty throughout history.
In this quote, Thomas Paine expresses his strong opposition to revealed religion, highlighting the negative consequences it has had on humanity. He suggests that many of the worst atrocities and suffering in human history can be traced back to the influences of religious beliefs presented as divine revelation, implying that such faith systems can lead to moral corruption and societal harm.
Themes
ReligionRevelationSufferingAtrocitiesCriticismPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the role of religion in society, this quote can be used to highlight the potential dangers of dogmatic belief systems.
More from Thomas Paine
All quotes βThat 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
Similar quotes
It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
What the world needs is not dogma but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflicted by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of the believer
Bertrand RussellRead
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas JeffersonRead
In the Light of interbeing, peace and happiness in your daily life means peace and happiness in the world.
Nhat HanhRead
To have and not to give is often worse than to steal.
Marie Von Ebner-EschenbachRead
What I want you to understand, is the full evil of those who claim to have become convinced that this earth, by its nature, is a realm of malevolence where the good has no chance to win. Let them check their premises. Let them check their standards of value. Let them check - before they grant themselves the unspeakable license of evil-as-necessity - whether they know what is the good and what are the conditions it requires.
Ayn RandRead