For students, history buffs, and fans of "Glenn Beck's Common Sense" --- read the original masterpiece that helped inspire the American Revolution.
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Common Sense
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Of the Origin and Design of Government in General. With Concise Remarks on the English Constitution
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Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities are heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least.
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“No writer has exceeded Paine in ease and familiarity of style; in perspicuity of expression, happiness of elucidation, and in simple unassuming language.” —Thomas Jefferson
From the Trade Paperback edition. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Poche .
From the Trade Paperback edition. --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Poche .
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Par bernie
Format:Broché
"... let none be heard among us, then those of A GOOD CITIZEN, ANOPEN AND RESOLUTE FRIEND, AND A VIRTUOUS SUPPORTER OF THE RIGHTS OF MANKIND..."
If you don't see the above quote in your copy evidently there are different copies of "Common Sense" with some variances. All have the standard four chapters; additions have other materials... Most of the versions I have come in books marked "Common Sense and other writings by Thomas Payne."
As you read "Common Sense" you'll realize there are several ways you can approach this information. One way is to look at it in the time period that it was written as one of his target readers. Another is to apply it to today's way of life. I actually had chosen as a combination. I also thought that I knew the Bible pretty well but found that I had to look up some quotations that he used.
I'm not going to go into detail as I don't want to spoil the surprise of how well he writes on the subject(s). I will say this is one of those books that you want to read before you die but I prefer to read it early so I can live by what I've read. Also I was surprised as with most people quote things like the Constitution or of the Bill of Rights so forth they always quote the large esoteric statements or concepts and forget tell you that it can get bogged down with tedium. This is not the case of "Common Sense" as almost every one of his sentences as a standalone timeless thought.
Liberty! The American Revolution
If you don't see the above quote in your copy evidently there are different copies of "Common Sense" with some variances. All have the standard four chapters; additions have other materials... Most of the versions I have come in books marked "Common Sense and other writings by Thomas Payne."
As you read "Common Sense" you'll realize there are several ways you can approach this information. One way is to look at it in the time period that it was written as one of his target readers. Another is to apply it to today's way of life. I actually had chosen as a combination. I also thought that I knew the Bible pretty well but found that I had to look up some quotations that he used.
I'm not going to go into detail as I don't want to spoil the surprise of how well he writes on the subject(s). I will say this is one of those books that you want to read before you die but I prefer to read it early so I can live by what I've read. Also I was surprised as with most people quote things like the Constitution or of the Bill of Rights so forth they always quote the large esoteric statements or concepts and forget tell you that it can get bogged down with tedium. This is not the case of "Common Sense" as almost every one of his sentences as a standalone timeless thought.
Liberty! The American Revolution
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Uncommon Sense
19 juillet 2010
Par William Brennan
- Publié sur Amazon.com
Format:Format Kindle|Achat authentifié par Amazon
Common Sense is one of the greatest articles of argumentation ever written. Paine was the finest pamphleteer of his age and was able to turn the discontents of the colonists and, especially, the intellectual leaders of the revolutionary movement into arguments that were easily understood by ordinary colonials and which inspired them to rally to the cause of independence.
I first read Common Sense more than fifty years ago and remember well being impressed with Paine's ability to carry arguments and to anticipate those of his opponents before his tract even hit the street. Over the course of my lifetime, I was inspired by the author and became a pamphleteer of sorts myself. I always told my colleagues that I wanted to become a poor man's Tom Paine. But after reading the piece once again, I realize that almost all who aspire to follow in his footsteps, if not fill his shoes, are doomed to become but very poor copies of the original.
Other reviewers have noted the fluidity of his writing; it reads as simply, directly and forcefully today as it must have nearly a quarter of a millennium ago. Obviously, one did not have to be a great reader to be swayed by the force of Paine's words or to be inspired to the side of those wishing to throw off the English yoke.
I was struck by echoes of Paine in many great American speeches that were running through my mind as I read. A number of quotes from Robert F. Kennedy seemed to have been directly inspired by Common Sense, and I hastily looked them up and offer these two for your consideration:
"It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task."
"All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."
The Declaration of Independence itself is a direct offspring of this great tract. Jefferson and the others charged with developing the document were well aware of Paine and had the opportunity to evaluate his words and to use his methods in creating our declaration, and this takes nothing away from their genius.
This is a document that can be read in short order, and it is free at the Kindle Store. How can you say no to giving it a try?
I first read Common Sense more than fifty years ago and remember well being impressed with Paine's ability to carry arguments and to anticipate those of his opponents before his tract even hit the street. Over the course of my lifetime, I was inspired by the author and became a pamphleteer of sorts myself. I always told my colleagues that I wanted to become a poor man's Tom Paine. But after reading the piece once again, I realize that almost all who aspire to follow in his footsteps, if not fill his shoes, are doomed to become but very poor copies of the original.
Other reviewers have noted the fluidity of his writing; it reads as simply, directly and forcefully today as it must have nearly a quarter of a millennium ago. Obviously, one did not have to be a great reader to be swayed by the force of Paine's words or to be inspired to the side of those wishing to throw off the English yoke.
I was struck by echoes of Paine in many great American speeches that were running through my mind as I read. A number of quotes from Robert F. Kennedy seemed to have been directly inspired by Common Sense, and I hastily looked them up and offer these two for your consideration:
"It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task."
"All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."
The Declaration of Independence itself is a direct offspring of this great tract. Jefferson and the others charged with developing the document were well aware of Paine and had the opportunity to evaluate his words and to use his methods in creating our declaration, and this takes nothing away from their genius.
This is a document that can be read in short order, and it is free at the Kindle Store. How can you say no to giving it a try?
77 internautes sur 83 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile
5.0 étoiles sur 5
more than history
16 septembre 1999
Par Un client
- Publié sur Amazon.com
Format:Broché
I read the other reviews and while I agree with them, I must add that this book is more than history. I remember reading Paine's critique of the English government being "so exceedingly complex" that when a problem developed, politicians would fight for years deciding whose fault it was. Finally, when they would try to solve the problem, everyone had a different solution. I thought I was reading an editorial from USNews. I was amazed that many problems that incited the colonies to revolt are now present in our new government. Read this as more than great history. Read it as political science, and public commentary.
41 internautes sur 43 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile
5.0 étoiles sur 5
The First Ever American Best-seller
15 mai 2006
Par Alexander Rayden
- Publié sur Amazon.com
Format:Broché
Over two hundred years after its initial publication, Thomas Paine's `Common Sense' is one of the most influential pamphlets ever written in the English language. Along with Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (1776), Harriet Beecher Stowe's `Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1851-1852), and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863), Paine's `Common Sense' can claim to be one of the first works to have instantly captured and then so permanently held the national imagination. `Common Sense', fiercely surpassed colonial newspaper circulations of the time by reaching a record breaking figure of 120,000 - 150,000 copies solely in its first year eventually culminating in a fifth of the adult American population to have either read Common Sense or to have had it read to them during the course of the Revolution. Paine can profess to have had the first ever American best-seller.
`Common Sense' addresses a people that were divided over the question of independence and in it Paine strongly attacks the virtue of a connection with England and presents an emphatic argument for immediate separation. Paine incorporated both a secular and religious argument for independence, thus freeing himself of any erroneous description that he was a Lockean liberal in the Hartzian mold and that Common Sense was simply a bourgeois manifesto. Paine was very much an original thinker among the Enlightenment philosophers and his unparalleled prescription for a new form of government, a united American Republic, and the manner in which it should be conducted were central to the American political vision that emerged during and immediately after the revolution.
[Part of the above review is taken from; "Common Sense?" by Alexander Rayden. Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved]
`Common Sense' addresses a people that were divided over the question of independence and in it Paine strongly attacks the virtue of a connection with England and presents an emphatic argument for immediate separation. Paine incorporated both a secular and religious argument for independence, thus freeing himself of any erroneous description that he was a Lockean liberal in the Hartzian mold and that Common Sense was simply a bourgeois manifesto. Paine was very much an original thinker among the Enlightenment philosophers and his unparalleled prescription for a new form of government, a united American Republic, and the manner in which it should be conducted were central to the American political vision that emerged during and immediately after the revolution.
[Part of the above review is taken from; "Common Sense?" by Alexander Rayden. Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved]
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