To read the history of kings, a man would be almost inclined to suppose that government consisted in stag-hunting, and that every nation paid a million a-year to a huntsman.
Thomas Paine: “To read the history of kings, a man would be almost inclined to suppose that government consisted in stag-hunting, and…”
Editor's note · Context
From his work "Rights of Man," Paine critiques the perceived frivolousness and expense of monarchical government.
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But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
If men will permit themselves to think, as rational beings ought to think, nothing can appear more ridiculous and absurd, exclusive of all moral reflections, than to be at the expense of building navies, filling them with men, and then…
Reason and discussion will soon bring things right, however wrong they may begin.