Thomas Paine

Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society.

Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence.

His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights.

Man did not enter into society to become worse than he was before, nor to have fewer rights than he had before, but to have those rights better secured.

If those to whom power is delegated do well, they will be respected: if not, they will be despised; and with regard to those to whom no power is delegated, but who assume it, the rational world can know nothing of them.

The duty of man is not a wilderness of turnpike gates, through which he is to pass by tickets from one to the other.

Nay, even the laws of governments are obliged to slide into this principle, by making degrees to consist in crimes and not in persons.

Whether in heaven or in hell, or in whatever state man may be supposed to exist hereafter, the good and the bad are the only distinctions.

It is also to be observed that all the religions known in the world are founded, so far as they relate to man, on the unity of man, as being all of one degree.

If this be not divine authority, it is at least historical authority, and shows that the equality of man, so far from being a modern doctrine, is the oldest upon record.

Every generation is equal in rights to generations which preceded it, by the same rule that every individual is born equal in rights with his contemporary.

The illuminating and divine principle of the equal rights of man (for it has its origin from the Maker of man) relates, not only to the living individuals, but to generations of men succeeding each other.