The one is like a young heir coming to a large improvable estate; the other like an old man whose chances are over, and his estate mortgaged for half its worth.
Thomas Paine: “The one is like a young heir coming to a large improvable estate; the other like an old man whose chances are over, and…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine uses an analogy to contrast the potential and financial state of America versus England during the American Revolution.
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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.
But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.
In those which proceed from the former cause, the temper becomes incensed and soured; and the redress, obtained by danger, is too often sullied by revenge.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.