Radical propagandist and voice of the common man, Thomas Paine. Statue in Bordentown, NJ. “These are the times that try men’s souls.” This simple quotation from Founding FatherThomas Paine’s The Crisis not only describes the beginnings of the American Revolution, but also the life of Paine himself. Throughout most of his life, his writings inspired passion, but also brought him great criticism.
He communicated the ideas of the Revolution to common farmers as easily as to intellectuals, creating prose that stirred the hearts of the fledgling United States. He had a grand vision for society: he was staunchly anti-slavery, and he was one of the first to advocate a world peace organization and social security for the poor and elderly. But his radical views on religion would destroy his success, and by the end of his life, only a handful of people attended his funeral.http://www.ushistory.org/paine/
“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.’
“Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.
“My mind is my own church.”
“The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.”
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
“It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.”
Thomas Paine
Paine was certainly consistent.
As a Deist, he renounced the Christian religion, believing in only one God that excluded Christ.
In contrast, many of our founding fathers were Deists but kept pews rented in the Episcopal Church.
I guess they had to run for office and Paine wouldn’t stoop that low.
We could sure use his pamphleteering in 2008’s America.
This is beautiful.
Thanks for posting these quotes to remind us all that it takes hard work to get what we want–but that it’s worth it in the end and there’s no other way (despite other editorializers like Mark Dilonno crying for the “poor, old” farmers in the HIghlands Preservation Area who have to engage in the same process as everyone else to preserve their farms).
The “mental lying” quote should be posted over the entry to the state house.
Too bad all of his quotes are focused on the male of the species.
How about some Walt Whitman?
This is beautiful.
Thanks for posting these quotes to remind us all that it takes hard work to get what we want–but that it’s worth it in the end and there’s no other way (despite other editorializers like Mark Dilonno crying for the “poor, old” farmers in the HIghlands Preservation Area who have to engage in the same process as everyone else to preserve their farms).
The “mental lying” quote should be posted over the entry to the state house.
Too bad all of his quotes are focused on the male of the species.
How about some Walt Whitman?
Here’s one of my favorite’s from Whitman”Song of Myself” (Leaves of Grass) – it rally fits my mood right now too!:
“The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world. ”