Jan 1, 1791
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act: a general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
Thomas Paine
The Public Record
Thomas Paine was an English-born American Founding Father, inventor, political philosopher, and statesman. His pamphlets Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776–1783) framed the Patriot argument for independence from Great Britain at the outset of the American Revolution. Paine advanced Enlightenment-era arguments for human rights that shaped revolutionary discourse on both sides of the Atlantic.
gutenberg.org
Jan 1, 1791
There is a natural aptness in man, and more so in society, because it embraces a greater variety of abilities and resource, to accommodate itself to whatever situation it is in.
Jan 1, 1791
Government is no farther necessary than to supply the few cases to which society and civilisation are not conveniently competent; and instances are not wanting to show, that everything which government can usefully add thereto, has been…
Jan 1, 1791
She has not only forced man into society by a diversity of wants which the reciprocal aid of each other can supply, but she has implanted in him a system of social affections, which, though not necessary to his existence, are essential to…
Jan 1, 1791
No one man is capable, without the aid of society, of supplying his own wants, and those wants, acting upon every individual, impel the whole of them into society, as naturally as gravitation acts to a centre.
Jan 1, 1791
As Nature created him for social life, she fitted him for the station she intended.
Jan 1, 1791
To understand the nature and quantity of government proper for man, it is necessary to attend to his character.
Jan 1, 1791
In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.
Jan 1, 1791
Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their law; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government.
Jan 1, 1791
The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole.
Jan 1, 1791
The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilised community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together.
Jan 1, 1791
It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished.