"Character is much easier kept than recovered."
-Thomas Paine
The reputation Toyota had earned as a trusted global car-maker took decades to build, but mere weeks to lose. Their most valuable asset too easily squandered and perhaps never fully recovered. There's a lesson in there for all of us.
"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws."
-Thomas Paine
When former vice president Dick Cheney parades his support for torture in front of the world, he abdicates all moral authority along with the principals of freedom and liberty he professes to defend. It isn't about those he would torture, justice is their due. It is about those that would forsake principal for security – in the process abandoning both.
"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
-Thomas Paine
"A nation under a well regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed. It is monarchical and aristocratical government only that requires ignorance for its support."
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
More on On the Better Use of a Billion Dollars: Corporate Bailouts or Scholarships
"Suspicion is the companion of mean souls, and the bane of all good society."
-Thomas Paine
The issue isn't really what matters. What matters is to cast doubt on whatever position your opponent takes on the issue.
"A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation."
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Political polarization is not the path to true leadership. When politics refuses to go beyond party at all costs, it remains small, unable to lead. Greatness and leadership is usually found outside the boundaries and comfort of party.
"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad"
-Thomas Paine
It is not the relative difficulty or ease, but the caliber of people with which we associate, that shapes the course of our lives.
"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow 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."
-Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
Filed under Philosophy of Thomas Paine, The History Blog Project, Thomas Paine Quotes by 
Truth never envelops itself in mystery, and the mystery in which it is at any time enveloped is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself.
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates his duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
