As politicians we ought not so much to ground our hopes on the reasonableness of the thing we ask, as on the reasonableness of the person of whom we ask it: who would expect discretion from a fool, candor from a tyrant, or justice from a villain?
Paine advises on the practicalities of political negotiation, emphasizing the character of the recipient over the merit of the request.
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Whether robbery shall be banished from courts, and wretchedness from countries?
It has nothing to dread from attacks; truth has given it an establishment, and time will record it with a name as lasting as his own.
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.