But the expression, if true, is the greatest confession of disgrace that could be made, and furnishes America with the highest notions of sovereign independent importance.
Thomas Paine: “But the expression, if true, is the greatest confession of disgrace that could be made, and furnishes America with the…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine interprets a British statement about their decline without America as an admission of weakness and a testament to America's sovereign importance.
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Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage, than any victory with all its expense.
The poor, in all countries, are naturally both peaceable and grateful in all reforms in which their interest and happiness is included.
In those which proceed from the former cause, the temper becomes incensed and soured; and the redress, obtained by danger, is too often sullied by revenge.
When a nation changes its opinion and habits of thinking, it is no longer to be governed as before; but it would not only be wrong, but bad policy, to attempt by force what ought to be accomplished by reason.