He examines the cost, and compares it with the advantages; and above all, he does not adopt the slavish custom of following what in other governments are called Leaders.
Thomas Paine: “He examines the cost, and compares it with the advantages; and above all, he does not adopt the slavish custom of…”
Editor's note · Context
From his defense of the French Revolution, this passage critiques blind obedience to political leaders.
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I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
If, therefore, the good to be obtained be worthy of a passive, rational, and costless revolution, it would be bad policy to prefer waiting for a calamity that should force a violent one.
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
When men unite in agreeing that a thing is good, could it be obtained, such for instance as relief from a burden of taxes and the extinction of corruption, the object is more than half accomplished.