Thomas Paine

But until this be done, I shall so far take the sense of the public for my guide (and the world knows I am not a flatterer) that what they do not think worth while to read, is not worth mine to answer.

Pardoning the pun, it must be criminal justice indeed that should condemn a work as a substitute for not being able to refute it.

It is for the good of nations and not for the emolument or aggrandisement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it.

The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.

Burke may see I have not written on Government without reflecting on what is Law, as well as on what are Rights.--The only effectual jury in such cases would be a convention of the whole nation fairly elected; for in all such cases the…

As to the prejudices which men have from education and habit, in favour of any particular form or system of government, those prejudices have yet to stand the test of reason and reflection.

To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.

The revolution of America presented in politics what was only theory in mechanics.

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think.

But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks,--and all it wants,--is the liberty of appearing.

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

For this purpose they did not, like a cabal of courtiers, send for a Dutch Stadtholder, or a German Elector; but they referred the whole matter to the sense and interest of the country.