A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education is essential for a nation to thrive, and ignorance supports detrimental forms of governance.
Thomas Paine emphasizes the importance of education within a nation, arguing that a well-regulated government should ensure that all citizens are instructed. He suggests that only oppressive forms of government, such as monarchies and aristocracies, thrive on the ignorance of the populace, highlighting the necessity of an informed citizenry for a healthy democracy.
Themes
EducationGovernmentIgnoranceEnlightenmentDemocracy
In practice
Example use cases
During a public speech on the importance of educational reform.
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
God has given to every one of us more than fourteen billion cells and connections in our brain. Now why would God give us such a complex organ system unless He expects us to use it?
Benjamin CarsonRead
You perceive now, my friends, what your general or abstract duty is as teachers. Although you have to generate in your pupils a large stock of ideas, any one of which may be inhibitory, yet you must also see to it that no habitual hesitancy or paralysis of the will ensues, and that the pupil still retains his power of vigorous action.
William JamesRead
Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime ministers have never yet been invested.
Winston ChurchillRead
We may always depend on it that algebra, which cannot be translated into good English and sound common sense, is bad algebra.
William Kingdon CliffordRead
Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information
Paulo FreireRead
My parents believed in education and economic security, and I thank them for it. Because I think that's part of what's made my life stable. It was instilled in me. You have to be able to pay your bills. You do not get into debt. And I never have been.
Helen MirrenRead