By nature they are children, and by marriage they are heirs; but by aristocracy they are bastards and orphans.
Thomas Paine: “By nature they are children, and by marriage they are heirs; but by aristocracy they are bastards and orphans.”
Editor's note · Context
Paine starkly contrasts the natural status of children as heirs with the dehumanizing label of "bastards and orphans" imposed by aristocratic primogeniture.
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