On the record
Is the path so elegantly smooth, so decked on every side, and carpeted with joys, that wretchedness is wanting to enrich it as a soil?
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgThomas Paine: “Is the path so elegantly smooth, so decked on every side, and carpeted with joys, that wretchedness is wanting to enrich…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine questions the notion that life is devoid of suffering, suggesting that hardship enriches our experiences.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
Jan 1, 1791
The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
Jan 1, 1791
But from such opposition the French Revolution, instead of suffering, receives an homage.
Jan 1, 1791
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.