“Common sense will tell us, that
the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the
most improper to defend us.”

—  Thomas Paine, book Common Sense

Source: Common Sense

Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others, the most improper to d…" by Thomas Paine?
Thomas Paine photo
Thomas Paine262
English and American political activist 1737–1809

Related quotes

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“Using, as an excuse, others’ failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 7

Tony Blair photo

“The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth, and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

As quoted in &quot;Socialism is So Hot Right Now&quot; https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/socialism-hot-right-now/ (17 September 2018), by Jonah Goldberg, Commentary <br class="br">1990s

Charles Baudelaire photo

“Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Our true Deity is Mechanism. It has subdued external Nature for us, and we think it will do all other things. We are Giants in physical power: in a deeper than metaphorical sense, we are Titans, that strive, by heaping mountain on mountain, to conquer Heaven also.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1820s, Signs of the Times (1829)

“Why is it the Mongols of this world always tell us they're defending us against the Mongols?”

Edward Whittemore (1933–1995) American writer

NS is the third book in the "Jerusalem Quartet"
Nile Shadows (1983)

William O. Douglas photo

“That seems to us to be the common sense of the matter; and common sense often makes good law.”

William O. Douglas (1898–1980) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Writing for the court, Peak v. United States, 353 U.S. 43 (1957)
Judicial opinions

Abraham Lincoln photo

“But no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Interview with Alexander W. Randall and Joseph T. Mills (1864)
Context: My enemies say I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. It is and will be carried on so long as I am President for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done.

Vladimir Nabokov photo

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.”

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

Speak, Memory: A Memoir (1951)
Context: The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour).

Michael Crichton photo

“Every one of us has a sense of the world, and we all know that this sense is in part given to us by what other people and society tell us; in part generated by our emotional state, which we project outward; and in part by our genuine perceptions of reality. In short, our struggle to determine what is true is the struggle to decide which of our perceptions is genuine, and which are false because they are handed down, or sold to us, or generated by our own hopes and fears.”

Michael Crichton book State of Fear

State of Fear (2004)

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo

“I have been reminded that I sit here as counsel for the defendant. I certainly do so, so far as to interpose between him and the counsel for the prosecution, and to see that no improper use of the law is made against him, and that no improper evidence is given to the jury: but the Judge has another task to perform, which is that of assisting the jury in the administration of justice.”

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron

Wakefield's Case (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 736.

Related topics