On the recordJanuary 1, 1791
Rights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights, in the majority, leave the right, by exclusion, in the hands of a few.
Said by
Thomas Paine
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gutenberg.orgRights are inherently in all the inhabitants; but charters, by annulling those rights, in the majority, leave the right, by exclusion, in the hands of a few.
In "Rights of Man," Paine asserts that rights are inherent to all people, while charters serve to annul these rights for the majority, concentrating power in the hands of a few.
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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.