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We have it in our power to begin the world over again
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10 quotes by Thomas Paine · clear filters
We have it in our power to begin the world over again
Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.
Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.
When the world was over run with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue.
This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.
A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.
The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government.
It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is on them that it operates to the worst effect.
Government with insolence is despotism; but when contempt is added it becomes worse; and to pay for contempt is the excess of slavery.
The enormous expense of governments has provoked people to think, by making them feel; and when once the veil begins to rend, it admits not of repair.