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About this quote

What does it mean?
Lying about one's beliefs corrupts the mind and leads to further unethical actions.
In plain terms
Faking belief damages your character and leads to more bad acts.
What can you take from it?
Align your beliefs with your actions to avoid corruption.

Where it applies

  • professional settings
  • ethical discussions
  • personal integrity

Putting it to work

  • Avoid subscribing to false beliefs
  • Maintain mental chastity

Questions to consider

  • How do you stay honest in profession?
  • What corrupts integrity fastest?

Another view

It equates professional belief strictly with personal conviction.

More from Thomas Paine

  1. It is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in …

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  2. It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessaril…

    Permalink to quote #32
  3. Whenever we read the obscene stories the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half …

    Permalink to quote #29

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