Life & Wisdom Quote by Thomas Paine

Paine weaponizes “moderation” by splitting it cleanly in two: as a personal discipline worth admiring, and as a political posture worth distrusting. The first clause is a jab at complacency dressed up as reasonableness. “Moderately good” isn’t a compromise; it’s an underachievement that congratulates itself for showing up. Paine’s phrasing turns mediocrity into a moral failure, not a harmless middle ground.

Then he tightens the vise. “Moderation in temper” flatters the Enlightenment ideal of self-command: don’t let anger run the meeting. But “moderation in principle” is where he draws blood. Principles are not spices to be added carefully; they’re the load-bearing beams. Dilute them and the whole structure collapses. The subtext is an accusation aimed at fence-sitters, elites, and cautious reformers who treat justice like a negotiation. In Paine’s world, there are historical moments when neutrality isn’t prudence, it’s collaboration with the status quo.

Context matters: Paine is writing in an age when revolution is not metaphor but logistics, when “reasonable” often means “safe for the powerful.” His broader project in Common Sense and The Rights of Man is to make half-measures look ridiculous and moral urgency look sane. The line works because it appeals to a reader’s self-image: you can be calm without being compliant. Keep your temper cool, Paine implies, so your principles can burn hot.