Jan 1, 1791
The punyism of a senseless word like Duke, Count or Earl has ceased to please.
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
It is, properly, from the elevated mind of France that the folly of titles has fallen.
Jan 1, 1791
It reduces man into the diminutive of man in things which are great, and the counterfeit of women in things which are little.
Jan 1, 1791
The French Constitution places the right where the expense must fall, and this union can only be in the nation.
Jan 1, 1791
The one forces the nation to a combat, and the other ties its hands; but the more probable issue is that the contest will end in a collusion between the parties, and be made a screen to both.
Jan 1, 1791
The French Constitution, therefore, to provide against both these evils, has taken away the power of declaring war from kings and ministers, and placed the right where the expense must fall.
Jan 1, 1791
In reviewing the history of the English Government, its wars and its taxes, a bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by interest, would declare that taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on…
Jan 1, 1791
It is the art of conquering at home; the object of it is an increase of revenue; and as revenue cannot be increased without taxes, a pretence must be made for expenditure.
Jan 1, 1791
War is the common harvest of all those who participate in the division and expenditure of public money, in all countries.
Jan 1, 1791
It may with reason be said that in the manner the English nation is represented it signifies not where the right resides, whether in the Crown or in the Parliament.
Jan 1, 1791
We can all see the absurdity of worshipping Aaron's molten calf, or Nebuchadnezzar's golden image; but why do men continue to practise themselves the absurdities they despise in others?