A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
Thomas PaineRead
Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the Bible and organized religion as flawed and misleading.
Thomas Paine expresses a strong opinion against the Bible, labeling it as a collection of lies and contradictions imposed by the Church as divine truth. His statement reflects a broader critique of revealed religion and the impact it has on society, emphasizing skepticism toward established religious doctrines.
Themes
ReligionCritiqueBibleTruthPhilosophySkepticism
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of religion in society, one might quote Paine to challenge traditional beliefs.
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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No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
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A man with a full stomach and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortunates rail; the others may play marbles.
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Sweet Memory! wafted by thy gentle gale, Oft up the stream of Time I turn my sail.
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