Thomas Paine Blog » The Life of Thomas Paine

On Being Wise vs. Being Gratified

Thomas Schueneman — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:01:29 +0000

“Wisdom is not the purchase of a day”
-Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

A person stands a much better chance of winning the lottery than of finding a quick and easy path that bestows wisdom upon the traveler.

Instant gratification, and the culture that promotes it, forsakes the harder, longer path toward the unpromised gift of wisdom for the easier, quicker path of indulgence – of body, mind, and spirit; too much of everything.

Gratification is not gratitude, and information is not wisdom.

On Justice for Terrorists

Thomas Schueneman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:19:47 +0000

“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.

On the Better Use of a Billion Dollars: Corporate Bailouts or Scholarships

Thomas Schueneman — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:12:57 +0000

“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

Believing that a company is too big to fail, while the education of the coming generation falters, is an aristocracy of government-by-corporation that cannot last.

On Hiding the Truth

Thomas Schueneman — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:35:44 +0000

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

Truth is onto itself always, requiring nothing, and hiding from no one. Those that aim to deceive others from where truth lay, are its sworn enemy.

On Transparency in Government

Thomas Schueneman — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:59:03 +0000

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

It is the government with something to hide, or thinks itself justified in so doing, that we must fear most.