Can we possibly suppose that if governments had originated in a right principle, and had not an interest in pursuing a wrong one, the world could have been in the wretched and quarrelsome condition we have seen it?
Paine questions the foundational principles of existing governments, suggesting their inherent flaws lead to global conflict and suffering.
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The present age will hereafter merit to be called the Age of Reason, and the present generation will appear to the future as the Adam of a new world.
When another nation shall join France, despotism and bad government will scarcely dare to appear.
It serves to keep up deceitful expectations which prevent people from looking into the defects and abuses of government.
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.