Thomas Paine: “Reason and Ignorance, the opposites of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind.”

The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.

To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin.

The more it is struck the more sparks it will emit; and the fear is it will not be struck enough.

An hereditary governor is as inconsistent as an hereditary author.