Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless.
Thomas A. EdisonPaine suffered then, as now he suffers not so much because of what he wrote as from the misinterpretations of others...
He disbelieved the ancient myths and miracles taught by established creeds. But the attacks on those creeds - or on persons devoted to them - have served to darken his memory, casting a shadow across the closing years of his life.
When Theodore Roosevelt termed Tom Paine a 'dirty little atheist' he surely spoke from lack of understanding. It was a stricture, an inaccurate charge of the sort that has dimmed the greatness of this eminent American. But the true measure of his stature will yet be appreciated. The torch which he handed on will not be extinguished. If Paine had ceased his writings with 'The Rights of Man' he would have been hailed today as one of the two or three outstanding figures of the Revolution. But 'The Age of Reason' cost him glory at the hands of his countrymen - a greater loss to them than to Tom Paine.
I was always interested in Paine the inventor. He conceived and designed the iron bridge and the hollow candle; the principle of the modern central draught burner. The man had a sort of universal genius. He was interested in a diversity of things; but his special creed, his first thought, was liberty.
Traducers have said that he spent his last days drinking in pothouses. They have pictured him as a wicked old man coming to a sorry end. But I am persuaded that Paine must have looked with magnanimity and sorrow on the attacks of his countrymen. That those attacks have continued down to our day, with scarcely any abatement, is an indication of how strong prejudice, when once aroused, may become. It has been a custom in some quarters to hold up Paine as an example of everything bad.
The memory of Tom Paine will outlive all this. No man who helped to lay the foundations of our liberty - who stepped forth as the champion of so difficult a cause - can be permanently obscured by such attacks. Tom Paine should be read by his countrymen. I commend his fame to their hands.
{The Philosophy of Paine, June 7, 1925}
Tags: greatness prejudice memory atheist american paine thomas-paine misrepresentation roosevelt inventor draught-burner hollow-candle iron-bridge teddy-roosevelt theodore-roosevelt
Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing
Thomas A. EdisonThe most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise. Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain. The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.
Thomas A. EdisonAll bibles are man-made.
Thomas A. EdisonNature is truly wonderful. Only man is truly foul.
Thomas A. EdisonNearly every person who develops an idea works at it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.
Thomas A. EdisonI am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
Thomas A. Edisonbanyak orang yang gagal adalah orang yang tidak menyadari betapa dekatnya mereka dengan kesuksesan saat mereka menyerah
Thomas A. EdisonTags: gagal
Opportunity is often missed because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.
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