By admitting a participation of the spoil, it makes itself friends; and when it ceases to do this it will cease to be the idol of courtiers.
Thomas Paine: “By admitting a participation of the spoil, it makes itself friends; and when it ceases to do this it will cease to be…”
Editor's note · Context
From 'Rights of Man,' this passage explains how a system of power secures allegiance by sharing its ill-gotten gains.
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The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.