It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is on them that it operates to the worst effect.
Thomas Paine: “It is over the lowest class of mankind that government by terror is intended to operate, and it is on them that it…”
Editor's note · Context
From "Rights of Man," Paine observes that governance by terror primarily targets the lowest classes of society, where it produces the most detrimental effects.
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As soldiers have hitherto been treated in most countries, they might be said to be without a friend.
Nations, like individuals, who have long been enemies, without knowing each other, or knowing why, become the better friends when they discover the errors and impositions under which they had acted.
When men unite in agreeing that a thing is good, could it be obtained, such for instance as relief from a burden of taxes and the extinction of corruption, the object is more than half accomplished.
Never did so great an opportunity offer itself to England, and to all Europe, as is produced by the two Revolutions of America and France.