"Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each..." - Quote by Thomas Paine
Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of Government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
More by Thomas Paine
More on Reason
“World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built.”
“Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.”
“No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men.”
More on Ignorance
“The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.”
“It is those books which a man possesses but does not read which constitute the most suspicious evidence against him.”
“The less a man knows the bigger the noise he makes and the higher the salary he commands.”