Common Sense

L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz, seems to have used Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man as the inspiration for the Wizard in his most famous book, The Wizard of Oz: “Monarchy always appears to me a silly, contemptible thing. I compare it to something kept behind a curtain, about which there is a great deal …

Wizard of Oz inspired by Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man?Read More »

Indeed, in 2019, “The Times [have] found us!” Nancy Pelosi’s new favorite founder turns out to be Thomas Paine. Throughout 2019, she has quoted Paine from Common Sense with a deep cut, that previously, was rarely used as an isolated quote. She most recently cited Paine during this Late Show appearance:

“Whether fool or hypocrite, idiot or traitor, he has proved himself equally unworthy of the important functions that had been delegated to him.” —Thomas Paine, 1791

“The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another…” Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, 1795

“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy; it first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; …

“There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy…Read More »

I understand fully the limits of moral suasion. We have no illusion that changes will come easily or soon. But I also believe that it is a mistake to undervalue the power of words and of the ideas that words embody. In our own history, that power has ranged from Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” to …

President Jimmy Carter on Thomas PaineRead More »