Paine, Thomas (1737-1809)

The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology.

Paris Printed by Barrois, London: Sold by D. I. Eaton

Barrois

1794

"I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors [that bolt into the mind of their own accord] with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have."

Any person, who has made observations on the state and progress of the human mind, by observing his own, cannot but have observed, that there are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts -- those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord. I have always made it a rule to treat those voluntary visitors with civility, taking care to examine, as well as I was able, if they were worth entertaining; and it is from them I have acquired almost all the knowledge that I have. As to the learning that any person gains from school education, it serves only, like a small capital, to put him in the way of beginning learning for himself afterwards. Every person of learning is finally his own teacher; the reason of which is, that principles, being of a distinct quality to circumstances, cannot be impressed upon the memory; their place of mental residence is the understanding, and they are never so lasting as when they begin by conception.
(pp. 434-5)

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Reading

Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. (Paris: Printed by Barrois, London: Sold by D. I. Eaton, 1794). <Link to Liberty Fund's Online Library of Liberty>

05/19/2011