Thomas Paine: “It is ridiculous that nations are to wait and government be interrupted till boys grow to be men.”

Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.

War is their trade, plunder and revenue their objects.

A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.

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.