Thomas Paine: “In France, we have found an affectionate friend and faithful ally; in Britain, we have found nothing but tyranny…”

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.

The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?

It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.