Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Paine, Thomas (2011-07-03), Common Sense, Tribeca Books, Retrieved on 2011-07-23
  • Source Material [www.gutenberg.org]
  • Folksonomies: politics enlightenment revolution free thought independence

    Memes

    23 JUL 2011

     Time makes more converts than reason

    Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
    Folksonomies: culture habit custom
    Folksonomies: culture habit custom
      1  notes

    Thomas Paine on the habit we have of assuming something is correct because it has gone so long without being demonstrated as false.

    23 JUL 2011

     The Difference Between Society and Government

    Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first a patron, the last a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, bu...
      1  notes

    "Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness..." Paine argues that government is put in place to protect us from our baser selves.

    23 JUL 2011

     Government by the Consent of the Governed

    Some convenient tree will afford them a State-House, under the branches of which, the whole colony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the title only of REGULATIONS, and be enforced by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this first parliament every man, by natural right, will have a seat. But as the colony increases, the public concerns will increase likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, wil...
      1  notes

    A revolutionary idea from Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet.

    23 JUL 2011

     The Monarchy Paradox

    There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; wherefore the different parts, by unnaturally opposing and destroying each other, prove the whole character to be absurd and useless.
    Folksonomies: politics monarchy
    Folksonomies: politics monarchy
      1  notes

    The King must be cut off and distanced from the governed, the very thing he is supposed to be most knowledgeable about.

    23 JUL 2011

     The Principle of Religious Diversity

    As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of all government, to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government hath to do therewith, Let a man throw aside that narrowness of soul, that selfishness of principle, which the niggards of all professions are so unwilling to part with, and he will be at delivered of his fears on that head. Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society. For myself, I fully and c...
      1  notes

    Paine argues that a plurality of religious beliefs with strengthen the country.

    23 JUL 2011

     The Law is King in America

    But where, says some, is the King of America? I'll tell you. Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolu...
      1  notes

    And the crown is demolished and scattered among the people.

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