Thomas Paine: the mind once enlightened cannot again become dark

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.” Much of my art is inspired by secular writing; quotes, essays, and ideas that have shaped how we think about the world. When I was looking for some Valentine’s Day inspiration, this line from Thomas Paine captivated me. The story behind where he wrote it turned out to be far more interesting than I expected.

The quote comes from a 1782 work titled *A Letter Addressed to the Abbé Raynal on the Affairs of North America*. Raynal was a French philosopher who had written about the Revolution, but Paine felt he got the story wrong. In his response, Paine argues that what happened in America wasn’t just a reaction to unfair taxes. It was an intellectual revolution, a collective decision to never go back to the way things were.

But the best way to understand what Paine meant is to read his own words. This is the full passage where our quote appears:

The people of England not having experienced this change, had likewise no ideas of it, they were hugging to their bosoms the same prejudices we were trampling beneath our feet; and they expected to keep a hold upon America, by that narrowness of thinking which America disdained. What they were proud of, we despised: and this is a principal cause why all their negotiations, constructed on this ground, have failed. We are now really another people, and cannot again go back to ignorance and prejudice. The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark. There is no possibility, neither is there any term to express the supposition by, of the mind unknowing any thing it already knows; and therefore all attempts on the part of England, fitted to the former habit of America, and on the expectation of their applying now, will be like persuading a seeing man to become blind, and a sensible one to turn an idiot. The first of which is unnatural and the other impossible.

As an artist, I was curious what the stamp itself actually looked like — the very thing that sparked so much of this history. Here’s what I found:

*An original Stamp Act revenue stamp from 1765, marked “America” beneath the Royal seal.*

The Stamp Act was a tax levied on the American colonists by the British for paper goods to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. It was a direct tax imposed by the British government without the approval of the colonial legislatures and was payable in hard-to-obtain British sterling, rather than colonial currency. Further, those accused of violating the Stamp Act could be prosecuted in Vice-Admiralty Courts, which had no juries and could be held anywhere in the British Empire!

Paine saw something clearly that many others didn’t, or didn’t want to. Once people have tasted that kind of freedom, there’s no going back. What a wonderful way to celebrate his birthday!