Current Events

On Saving the Elephant
"The most effectual method to keep men honest is to enable them to live so. (…)

On the Problem of Assuming the Worst - Accepting a Heart of Darkness
For as certainly as a man predicts ill, he becomes inclined to wish it. The pride of having his judgment right hardens his heart, till at last he beholds with satisfaction, or sees with disappointment, the accomplishment or the failure of his predictions.
-Thomas Paine

On the War in Iraq, Nearly Four Years On
No human foresight can discern, no conclusion can be formed, what turn a war might take, if once set on foot by an invasion.

On the Need for Government Oversight and Citizen Involvement
Can we possibly suppose that if Governments had originated in a right principal, and had not an interest in pursuing a wrong one, the world could have been in the wretched and quarelsome condition we have seen it?
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

On Right Thinking, Logical Reasoning, and Not Judging a Book by its Cover
It is only by tracing things to their origin, that we can gina rightful ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we discover the boudary that divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know his own.
-Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice

On Legislation Introduced to Address Global Warming and Climate Change
To perserve the benefits of what is called civilized life, and to remedy at the same time the evils it has produced, ought to be considered as one of the first objectives of reformed legislation,
-Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice

On the Execution of a Tyrant
Civil Government does not consist in executions; but in making that provision for the instruction of youth and the support of age, as to exclude , as much as possible, profligacy from the one and despair from the other.
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man

On Greeting a New Year
We have it within our power to begin the world over again.
-Thomas Paine

On the Passing of James Brown and Gerald Ford
"Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title."
As Thomas Paine says, a title is but a nickname and a nickname a title.
We remember James Brown and Gerald Ford today. (…)

Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."
-Thomas Paine

On Feeling the Earth Move
"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value."

While sitting down to write this post in the office of my San Francisco home, a slight tremor shook the building. (…)

On Leading Without Introspection
Enjoy, sir, your insensibility of feeling and reflecting. It is the prerogative of animals. And no man will envy you those honors, in which a savage can only be your rival and a bear your master.
-Thomas Paine, The Crisis

On Language and Liberty
The American constitutions were to liberty, what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech and practically construct them into syntax.
-Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man
On Why Being Mean is Stupid
There is something in meanness which excites a species of resentment that never subsides, and something in cruelty which stirs up the heart to the highest agony of human hatred…
-Thomas Paine, The Crisis

On the Findings of the Iraq Commision
If there is a sin superior to every other it is that of willful and offensive war
-Thomas Paine, The Crisis

On Living in an Age of Revolution
It is an age of Revolutions, in which everything may be looked for
-Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

Our Mission at ThomasPaineBlog.org
We welcome you as we continue our Thomas Paine project on our new website. Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is defined here.
On the Limitations of Political Party and the Grand Experiment of Our Forefathers
It is the nature and intention of a constitution to prevent governing by party, by establishing a common principle that shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to all parties, thus far shalt thou go and no further. (…)

On the Escalating Violene in Iraq and the Middle East
"That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord, and cultivate prejudices between nations, it becomes the more unpardonable."