"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right"
About this Quote
Paine is describing a psychological cheat code that props up unjust systems: repetition doesn’t just normalize; it launders. “A long habit” is doing the real work here. He’s not arguing that people reason themselves into oppression so much as they drift into it, letting custom stand in for conscience. The line has the snap of a warning label: what feels “right” may only feel familiar.
The phrase “not thinking a thing wrong” is a quiet indictment. Paine doesn’t say “believing” or “knowing.” He says not thinking, the active absence of scrutiny. That’s his target: political passivity dressed up as common sense. When he calls the rightness “superficial,” he’s puncturing the confidence that tradition breeds. “Superficial” implies a glossy finish, not a foundation. The subtext is Enlightenment dynamite: legitimacy must be argued for, not inherited.
Context matters. Paine wrote as an agitator for revolution, someone trying to snap readers out of the trance of monarchy, inherited privilege, and deference to authority. In late 18th-century Britain and America, “it’s always been this way” was practically a governing philosophy. Paine’s sentence is designed to make that philosophy sound as flimsy as it is. It’s also a rhetorical move that flatters the reader’s autonomy: you are not doomed to your era’s moral wallpaper; you can peel it back.
What makes it endure is how it scales. It applies to slavery, censorship, patriarchy, corruption, even everyday workplace cruelty. The mechanism is the same: habit gives injustice a sheen of inevitability. Paine’s remedy is implied, not stated: think, relentlessly, especially where the surface looks most settled.
The phrase “not thinking a thing wrong” is a quiet indictment. Paine doesn’t say “believing” or “knowing.” He says not thinking, the active absence of scrutiny. That’s his target: political passivity dressed up as common sense. When he calls the rightness “superficial,” he’s puncturing the confidence that tradition breeds. “Superficial” implies a glossy finish, not a foundation. The subtext is Enlightenment dynamite: legitimacy must be argued for, not inherited.
Context matters. Paine wrote as an agitator for revolution, someone trying to snap readers out of the trance of monarchy, inherited privilege, and deference to authority. In late 18th-century Britain and America, “it’s always been this way” was practically a governing philosophy. Paine’s sentence is designed to make that philosophy sound as flimsy as it is. It’s also a rhetorical move that flatters the reader’s autonomy: you are not doomed to your era’s moral wallpaper; you can peel it back.
What makes it endure is how it scales. It applies to slavery, censorship, patriarchy, corruption, even everyday workplace cruelty. The mechanism is the same: habit gives injustice a sheen of inevitability. Paine’s remedy is implied, not stated: think, relentlessly, especially where the surface looks most settled.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
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