The poor, in all countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in which their interest and happiness is included.
Thomas Paine: “The poor, in all countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in which their interest and…”
Editor's note · Context
In "Rights of Man," Paine argues that the poor are inherently peaceful and appreciative when reforms genuinely serve their well-being.
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If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.