A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Political associations exist to protect fundamental human rights, including liberty and property.
In this quote, Thomas Paine emphasizes that the primary purpose of any political organization or government should be to safeguard the inherent rights of individuals. He identifies these rights as key elements of human existence that must be preserved against any form of injustice or oppression, underlining the importance of personal freedom and security in society.
Themes
PoliticalRightsLibertyOppressionSecurity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about human rights, one might quote Thomas Paine to emphasize the importance of protecting personal freedoms.
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
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
Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
Thomas PaineRead
Similar quotes
Food probably has a very great influence on the condition of men. Wine exercises a more visible influence, food does it more slowly but perhaps just as surely. Who knows if a well-prepared soup was not responsible for the pneumatic pump or a poor one for a war?
Georg C. LichtenbergRead
I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation.
Elisabeth Kubler-RossRead
Does anyone believe that Goldman Sachs is gonna give up a deal that would yield millions of dollars because someone fussed at them behind closed doors?
Elizabeth WarrenRead
White people’s number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. We don’t have to learn about those who are other than white. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that we’re ignorant.
Jane ElliottRead
The generation of mankind is like the generation of leaves. The wind scatters the leaves on the ground, but the living tree burgeons with leaves again in the spring.
HomerRead
A gentleman is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds.
ConfuciusRead