A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Time makes more converts than reason.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that over time, people's beliefs can change more through experience than through logical reasoning.
Thomas Paine's quote emphasizes the transformative power of time in shaping beliefs and opinions. It implies that while rational arguments can influence thought, the gradual passage of time plays a more significant role in converting individuals to new ideas or ideologies, as they witness changes and events that alter their perspective. This reflects the notion that lived experiences often outweigh theoretical reasoning in the long run.
Themes
TimeBeliefChangeExperienceReason
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a discussion on how societal norms evolve over generations.
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.
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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.
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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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