Monday Philosophy

Thomas Paine was in many ways the chief salesman of the American Revolution. His pamphlet "Common Sense" blazed across the colonies and sparked support for independence at a time when the concept was still pretty alien to many Americans. Here's a quote from his later work The Age of Reason that remains all too relevant today:

"When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted
the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his
professional belief to things he does not believe,
he has prepared himself for the commission of
every other crime... Infidelity does not consist
in believing or in disbelieving, it consists in
professing to believe what one does not believe."