“Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”
-Thomas Paine
If Glenn Beck says the government wants to tax your breathing under the guise of global warming legislation, that doesn’t mean it’s true. If Sarah Palin tells us that health care reform is an evil plot, it’s more a reflection of Sarah than it is health care reform.
Reason dismisses such foolishness for what it is, ignorance swallows it whole.
“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
Vengeance is a self-fulfilling prophesy, feeding on its own cycle of hate and retribution. Victory over the insidious pull of a false sense of satisfaction from violence and oppression requires dogged determination, an adherence to the higher ideals conceived in the trial of our own oppression.
“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.
“…the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.”
-Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
Fear is the enemy of reason. Fear invites suspicion, prejudice, division.
Overcoming fear is the path to freedom.
