Pardoning the pun, it must be criminal justice indeed that should condemn a work as a substitute for not being able to refute it.
Thomas Paine: “Pardoning the pun, it must be criminal justice indeed that should condemn a work as a substitute for not being able to…”
Editor's note · Context
In "Rights of Man, Part Two," Paine criticizes attempts to suppress ideas through legal means rather than intellectual debate.
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I have no idea, considering the reforms which are now passing and spreading throughout Europe, that England will permit herself to be the last; and where the occasion and the opportunity quietly offer, it is better than to wait for a…
In those which proceed from the former cause, the temper becomes incensed and soured; and the redress, obtained by danger, is too often sullied by revenge.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.