On the recordJanuary 1, 1791
If a government requires the support of oaths, it is a sign that it is not worth supporting, and ought not to be supported.
Said by
Thomas Paine
Source
gutenberg.orgIf a government requires the support of oaths, it is a sign that it is not worth supporting, and ought not to be supported.
In "Rights of Man," Paine asserts that a government relying on oaths for support is inherently weak and undeserving.
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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.
As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.
There is, therefore, no power but the voluntary will of the people that has a right to act in any matter respecting a general reform; and by the same right that two persons can confer on such a subject, a thousand may.
The insulted German and the enslaved Spaniard, the Russ and the Pole, are beginning to think.