If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my children may have peace.
- Topic: Conflict, Peace, Society, Strength
- Location: Arches National Park
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Thomas Paine
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.
'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.
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace, and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.
More Quotes from Arches National Park
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The free flow of conflicting ideas and feelings is critical for creative thinking, for discovering new solutions no one individual would have come to on his own.
The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.
Beware of allowing a tactless word, a rebuttal, a rejection to obliterate the whole sky.
With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarters, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.
I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble and a fuss; and that they can have if we explain; and they cannot have if we don’t.
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find a better man.
True success, true wealth, does not come out of the barrel of a gun.
He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.
Fundamentally, there are only to ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion — the technique of the army and the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation — the technique of the marketplace.
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth.
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.
If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences.
All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.
Man lives in a world of surmise, of mystery, of uncertainties.
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.
If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.
Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.
Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.
Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
Our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves . . . But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom.
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
What though strength fails? Boldness is certain to win praise. In mighty enterprises, it is enough to have had the determination.
It cannot be your duty to do anything that is beyond your reach or your strength at the moment. It cannot be your duty to do anything that sacrifices your own integrity or your own spiritual development.
True strength lies in gentleness.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
