Misfortune and experience are lost upon mankind, when they produce neither reflection nor reformation.
Thomas Paine: “Misfortune and experience are lost upon mankind, when they produce neither reflection nor reformation.”
Editor's note · Context
From "The American Crisis," Paine observes that suffering and lessons learned are wasted if they do not lead to introspection and change.
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Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.
As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.
If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.
Why may we not suppose, that the great Father of all is pleased with variety of devotion; and that the greatest offence we can act, is that by which we seek to torment and render each other miserable?